Page "Ben Rich" Paragraph 3

In December 1954 Rich was seconded to the Skunk Works, the secret research and development section run by Lockheed's chief engineer Clarence " Kelly " Johnson.

There he designed the inlet ducts for the U-2 spy plane.

Then he led the effort to build large-scale hydrogen liquefaction plant for a proposed hydrogen-powered supersonic aircraft, codenamed Suntan.

After this was canceled when hydrogen proved to be impractical, Rich was program manager for the propulsion systems for the U-2's successor, the SR-71 Blackbird.

The idea to paint the high-speed aircraft's skin black, to help dissipate the tremendous Aerodynamic heating, was Rich's.

He designed the engine inlet cones, the air conditioning system, and was the chief thermodynamicist for the project.