In 1993, former Lockheed Skunk Works director Ben Rich was speaking at a UCLA alumni event. Rich had overseen programs like the U-2, the SR-71, and the F-117.
At the end of his presentation, according to multiple attendees, Rich's final slide showed a black disc-shaped craft flying into space.
Was he just messing with the audience? Rich would end up dying just two years later.
Just before Ben Rich passed away, when I was talking to him, he told me, at the end of a 45-minute conversation, he said,
Ben Rich's son, Michael Rich, was the president and CEO of RAND Corporation for decades.