Ben Rich
| Ben Rich | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Benjamin Robert Rich June 18, 1925 Manila, Philippines |
| Died | January 5, 1995 (aged 69) Ventura, California, U.S |
| Nationality | Naturalized American Citizen |
| Education |
UCLA,Berkeley Harvard Business School |
| Known for | Regarded as the "Father of stealth" |
Benjamin Robert "Ben" Rich (June 18, 1925 – January 5, 1995) was the second Director of Lockheed's Skunk Works from 1975 to 1991, succeeding its founder, Kelly Johnson. Regarded as the "father of stealth," Rich was responsible for leading the development of the F-117, the first production stealth aircraft. He also worked on the F-104, U-2, A-12, SR-71, and F-22, among others. He is the author of Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years of Lockheed.
Rich was born in Manila in the Philippines, one of the five children of British lumber mill superintendent Isidore Rich and his French wife, Annie, the daughter of one of his paternal grandfather's Jewish customers who resided in Alexandria, Egypt. The Rich family was one of the first Jewish families to settle in Manila. Having fled the Philippines just weeks before the Empire of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, they moved to the United States in 1942, where Rich became a naturalized US citizen. He worked (with his father) in a Los Angeles, California machine shop during World War II, and studied at the city's Hamilton High School. After the war he started his college education when he was 21, majoring in mechanical engineering at UC Berkeley, followed by a master's degree in aeronautical engineering at UCLA, instead of in the medical field as he originally planned.
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