Beyond The Horizon: The Story Of Lockheed

by Walter J. Boyne

The author of Beyond the Wild Blue explores the many factors that led Lockheed from near bankruptcy in the 1930s to become one of the most successful and innovative aerospace corporations in the world. 25,000 first printing.

Genres: Business, History

576 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1998

Reviews

[R.J. Richards · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book if you like history and technical information. It's not for everyone, but if you have a legitimate interest in aviation and aviation history then you will love it. Well researched with incredible photos.

[Jurijs · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've learned a lot about Lockheed Martin, but the book is 80% a dry, stodgy ledger of Lockheed accomplishments.

There is a history of a great 100-year-old company in it, but it burred under hips of useless factoids.

Quoting from the author here:

"On October 5, 1989, the 37th Tactical Fighter Wing (TFW) took over from the deactivated 4450th, with three squadrons of F-117As - the 415th, 416th, and 417th."

And we will never hear of any of the entities mentioned, except F117, anywhere in the book. This, in my opinion, is an awful way to present the history.

Another big chunk of the volume is devoted to platitudes to top execs of the company and how they built and maintained the sense of family within the company along the years while it was growing from 10 people to 200k monstrosity merging with 50 other companies.

Don't read. Find another way to learn about Lockheed, and especially Skunk Works, or you risk thinking "eh, another corp" by the end of it.

[Jesper Jorgensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting story vividly told by Mr. Boyne. Alas it ends with 1998 an a brief mentioning of the JFS