Mistakes happen!

I am not perfect. I did my best to write an entertaining and historically accurate book, based on primary sources whenever possible. But writing a book is a solitary pursuit and not at all like working in magazines. There is not an army of researchers to help check every fact. For a book, you’re on your own. Also I wrote this on nights and weekends while working a very intense day job. Mistakes inevitably happen. And there are surely some in the book.

Fortunately, mistakes can be corrected in future editions and I also value transparency, so I am going to post them here, as they are discovered. This is a living document that will be updated as mistakes are brought to my attention and they will be corrected in future editions of the book.

If you spot an error, let me know! Really. You can reach me at theimpossiblefactory@gmail.com.

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Page 134: The August 12, 1953 Soviet test was of course NOT the first hydrogen bomb test. The US got there first — testing an H-bomb on November 1, 1952.

Page 195: Air-to-air refueling did exist in 1956. The KC-97 first became operational in 1951, and was refueling several planes, including certain B-52s, in the 1950s.

Page 223: Steve Justice was not a young engineer on the OXCART program, as much as he would have loved to do that while in grade school.

Page 258: Steve Justice also never led the Skunk Works. He was a Director when he retired.

Page 286: Senator Gordon Allott represented the fine state of Colorado, not Illinois.

Page 429: Colonel Richard 'Butch' Sheffield was a Blackbird RSO, not a pilot.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This one stings. I feel awful about it. But in my defense, the acknowledgements were done last and in a rush. That said, I should have checked with a few key people, especially John Horrigan. Because he is NOT Kelly Johnson’s ONLY surviving relative, via Kelly’s last marriage, to Nancy. John is the keeper of Kelly’s archive/legacy, but he has four siblings: three sisters and a brother!