Ben Rich Benjamin Robert 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 . Early in life . 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 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor , they moved to the United States in 1942 , where Ben 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 . Lockheed . Upon graduation Rich was hired by Lockheed as a thermodynamicist . There he worked on a variety of projects - he was awarded a patent for designing a nichrome heating system which prevented Navy patrol plane crew ' s penises from freezing to their urine elimination pipes . He designed inlet ducts for the F - 104 Starfighter , the C - 130 transport aircraft , and the F - 90 fighter . The Skunk Works . In December 1954 Rich was transferred 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 next led the effort to design and build a large - scale hydrogen liquefaction plant for project " Suntan " , a proposed hydrogen - powered supersonic very high - altitude aircraft meant to replace the U - 2 . After Suntan was canceled , hydrogen proving to be impractical for a number of reasons , Rich became propulsion systems program manager for the U - 2 ' s successors , the A - 12 and the SR - 71 Blackbird . Rich was chief aerodynamicist for the projects , designer of the complex translating shock cones inlet design , air conditioning and heat management systems , and the specification of the aircraft ' s black skin coatings which optimized heat dissipation of their tremendous aerodynamic heating as well as incorporating materials to reduce radar signature – the aircraft incorporated a number of features of what would later be referred to as low observables or stealth technology . Later , as Johnson ' s successor as leader of the Skunk Works , Rich championed and directed the early experimental prototypes of stealth technology and led the development of the F - 117 stealth fighter . Awards . A member of the National Academy of Engineering , he won numerous awards during his career , including the Collier Trophy . In 2005 he was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame . In January 1981 , he received the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service for his work on the then - still - classified stealth airplane , in a secret ceremony in the office of then - Secretary of Defense Harold Brown . He was allowed to show the medal to his two children , Karen and Michael , but was not allowed to tell them why he had received it . Family . In 1950 , he married the former Faye Mayer , a fashion model , who died in 1980 . In 1982 , he married Hilda Elliot . He died of cancer in Ventura , California , on January 5 , 1995 . His son , Michael , is an executive with the RAND Corporation and his daughter , Karen , is a botanist .