Ben Rich Deathbed Statement — Skunk Works Director 1995

Ben Rich succeeded Kelly Johnson as director of Lockheed's Skunk Works division in 1975 and led the program through the development of the F-117 stealth fighter, the Have Blue technology demonstrator, and numerous classified programs. He retired in 1991 after 43 years with Lockheed. In the final years of his life, Rich made a series of statements at public venues and in private correspondence that became among the most-cited remarks in UAP research. At a 1993 UCLA School of Engineering Alumni Association speech, Rich reportedly stated: 'We already have the means to travel among the stars, but these technologies are locked up in black projects and it would take an act of God to ever get them out to benefit humanity.' He also reportedly stated that anything you can imagine, 'we already know how to do.' Testors model maker John Andrews, who corresponded with Rich, later provided a letter from Rich that was interpreted as confirming the existence of man-made extraterrestrial-appearing vehicles in classified programs. Rich died of cancer on January 5, 1995. The significance of the Rich statements lies in their source: the director of the most secretive and capable classified aircraft development program in American history making public statements about capabilities beyond the public record. Whether the statements referred to classified human-origin programs, to recovered non-human technology, or to hyperbole has been debated continuously since his death.