Summary of Peter Westwick's Stealth

By IRB Media

Get the Summary of Peter Westwick's Stealth in 20 minutes. Please note: This is a summary & not the original book. Original book introduction: At heart, Stealth is a tale of not just two aircraft but the two aerospace companies that made them, Lockheed and Northrop, guided by contrasting philosophies and outsized personalities. Beginning in the 1970s, the two firms entered into a fierce competition, one with high financial stakes and conducted at the highest levels of secrecy in the Cold War. They approached the problem of Stealth from different perspectives, one that pitted aeronautical designers against electrical engineers, those who relied on intuition against those who pursued computer algorithms. The two different approaches manifested in two very different solutions to Stealth, clearly evident in the aircraft themselves: the F-117 composed of flat facets, the B-2 of curves. For all their differences, Lockheed and Northrop were located twenty miles apart in the aerospace suburbs of Los Angeles, not far from Disneyland. This was no coincidence. The creative culture of postwar Southern California-unorthodox, ambitious, and future-oriented-played a key role in Stealth.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Nov 30, 2021
• ISBN: 9781638159704

IRB Media

With IRB books, you can get the key takeaways and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

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Insights on Peter Westwick's Stealth

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 10

Insights from Chapter 11

Insights from Chapter 12

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

Camouflage, the art of hiding from predators, is as old as the hills. And in the world of business, companies have been using this same concept to hide from their consumers for years.

#2

Radar was a wonder weapon during World War II, and it proved crucial to the Allied war effort. Not only could it reveal the presence of an airplane, but it could also determine the target’s altitude, bearing, and range.

#3

The advent of radar in the 1940s changed the balance in the air, making defense more difficult but also more necessary.

#4

The US government started investing in countermeasures against radar around this time, in an attempt to make their planes invisible to enemy radar. They focused on changing the shape and materials of the planes themselves, rather than the pilots.

#5

The University of Michigan and Ohio State University were two heartland institutions that contributed to the theoretical basis for stealth aircraft.

#6

American strategic bombers relied on speed and altitude, but by the 1970s, Soviet-made air defenses had become too powerful, and even the