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Skunk Works
A skunk works is a group of people who, in order to achieve unusual
results, work on a project in a way that is outside the usual rules. A
skunk works is often a small team that assumes or is given
responsibility for developing something in a short time with minimal
management constraints. Typically, a skunk works has a small number of
members in order to reduce communications overhead. A skunk works is
sometimes used to spearhead a product design that thereafter will be
developed according to the usual process. A skunk works project may be
secret.
The name is taken from the moonshine factory in Al Capp's cartoon,
"Lil' Abner."
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The Skunk Works® was formed in June of
1943 in Burbank, Calif. The Air Tactical Service Command (ATSC) of the Army
Air Force met with Lockheed Aircraft Corporation to express its need for a
jet fighter. A rapidly growing German jet threat gave Lockheed an
opportunity to develop an airframe around the most powerful jet engine that
the allied forces had access to, the British Goblin. Lockheed was chosen to
develop the jet because of its past interest in jet development and its
previous contracts with the Air Force. One month after the ATSC and Lockheed
meeting, a young engineer by the name of Clarence L. “Kelly” Johnson and
other associate engineers hand delivered the initial XP-80 proposal to the
ATSC. Two days later the go-ahead was given to Lockheed to start development
and the Skunk Works was born, with Kelly Johnson at the helm.
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The XP-80 |
The formal contract for the XP-80 did not
arrive at Lockheed until October 16, 1943; some four months after work had
already begun. This would prove to be a common practice within the Skunk
Works. Many times a customer would come to the Skunk Works with a request
and on a handshake the project would begin, no contracts in place, no
official submittal process. Kelly Johnson and his Skunk Works team designed
and built the XP-80 in only 143 days, seven less than was required.
What allowed Kelly to operate the Skunk
Works so effectively and efficiently was his unconventional organizational
approach. He broke the rules, challenging the current bureaucratic system
that stifled innovation and hindered progress. His philosophy is spelled out
in his “14
practices and rules” that he and his team followed. Many of these
“rules” are still considered valid today.
Advanced Development Programs (ADP, Skunk
Works®) is responsible for the integrated "front-end" development of new and
innovative technologies, new product and derivative programs in support of
Air Power as well as the integration of air and space assets.
With a passion for invention, Lockheed
Martin's Skunk Works has been synonymous with record-breaking aircraft,
stealth, lift fan technology, and other cutting-edge innovations for the
past 60 years.
The ability to quickly and quietly develop
new technologies and prototype war fighter systems is a critical capability
as the military pursues transformation to capability-driven, effects based
operations.
Tomorrow's war fighting information
infrastructure must expand beyond traditional boundaries established among
the strategic, operational and tactical levels of warfare. The nation needs
survivable, penetrating, long endurance manned and unmanned systems that can
provide persistent, real-time, surveillance and targeting capabilities in
all threat environments.
Skunk Works is focused on the
architectural framework, associated technologies and product needs of the
rapidly evolving, new warfare environment. Lockheed Martin is at heart a
company of inventors. We are not satisfied unless we devise a new solution
-- something smarter, something better. That way of thinking is also core to
the men and women of Skunk Works.
Skunk
Works
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Unofficial name for
Lockheed Martin's Lockheed Advanced Development Projects Unit – the
unit responsible for producing a number of famous aircraft, including
the U-2, the SR-71 Blackbird, and the F-117. Among the most recent projects
is the F-35 JSF (Joint Strike Fighter).
The Skunk Works originated during World War II, when the black projects
of the Skunk Works were located near the Burbank Airport, now renamed
Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, California. The legendary Kelly Johnson and
team developed the P-80 Shooting Star in a circus tent set in the
parking lot (as there was no existing secure area) in only 143 days.
This aircraft was the U.S. Air Force's first operational jet fighter.
Kelly Johnson headed the Skunk Works until 1975, when Ben Rich took over
leadership. At the end of the Cold War in 1989, Lockheed reorganized its
operations and relocated the Skunk Works to Site 10 at U. S. Air Force
Plant 42 in Palmdale, California where it is still in operation today.
The Skunk Works has used the
Groom Dry Lake Air Force Base for testing their secret aircraft
prototypes.
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Kelly Johnson's " Skunk Works " Created The World's Most Amazing Planes |
How a handful of men broke the rules and created the world's most
amazing high-tech weaponry.
Illustrations by Mike Machat, Mark McCandlish and Lockheed Martin Skunk
Works.
Published in the September, 1999 issue of Popular Mechanics.
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"Kelly" Johnson |
The generals had botched it. Years before Pearl Harbor they had sneered
at German plans for a new type of high-speed aircraft engine. Now in
1943, as the Allies began preparing for the D-Day invasion of France,
intelligence reports revealed that the Nazis were ramping up production
of a blistering fast fighter, a plane powered by the very same type of
propeller-less "jet" engine they had rejected. The War Department needed
a miracle airplane and turned to the one man it could count on to
deliver it in six months, Clarence L. Johnson. At age 33, "Kelly"
Johnson had already established his reputation. His newest design, the
twin-tailed, 400-mph P-38 Lightning, was the most maneuverable
fighter–and arguably the most beautiful airplane–in the Allied force
(see "Flying Battlewagons," May 1943, page 8). To counter the new German
threat, the War Department wanted Kelly to build a plane that could fly
200 mph faster, literally pressing its nose against the sound barrier.
The scrappy, one-time dockworker who was often described as W.C. Fields
without a sense of humor, knew exactly what to do: He rented a circus
tent.
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| Now located in Palmdale, Calif., the Skunk Works has branched out to
include developing stealthy missiles, low-observable unmanned aircraft
like the DarkStar and reusable launch vehicles including the X-33. Its
"black projects" remain a closely guarded secret. |
Kelly pitched his tent on the sprawling Lockheed Aircraft complex in
Burbank, Calif. Officially his shop was the Lockheed Advanced
Development Projects Unit. The stench from a nearby plastic factory that
wafted into the tent was so vile one of the engineers began answering
the phone "skonk works," after the backwoods still in the then popular
L'il Abner comic strip. Despite these less-than-ideal working
conditions, Kelly's team of 23 design engineers and 30 shop mechanics
delivered Lulu Belle, the prototype for the P-80 Shooting Star, in only
143 days. America had entered the jet age, more than a month ahead of
schedule.
The war ended before the P-80, later designated the F-80, would fire its
first shot in anger, against Soviet MiGs in Korea. Eventually Lockheed
would build about 9000. Kelly's team moved to more permanent quarters,
in a windowless bomber-production hangar. The foul smell that inspired
the design team's name became a memory but the name lingered. At least
until the lawyers for the L'il Abner comic strip caught wind of it. In
deference to the comic strip, the "skonk works" was rechristened the
Skunk Works.
Whatever the spelling, Kelly's Skunk Works is to aviation what
Edison's Menlo Park was to electricity, a place where the daily pursuit
of the impossible produces technologies indistinguishable from magic.
That the Skunk Works thrived in those early years, let alone flourished
to reach middle age, is all the more remarkable when you realize that
its second and third major projects, the Saturn cargo plane and the
XFV-1 vertical-takeoff naval fighter, were "absolute clunkers,"
according to Ben Rich, Kelly's protégé and hand-picked successor. "The
open secret in the company was that Kelly walked on water in the adoring
eyes of CEO Robert Gross," Rich would later recall in his memoirs.
It was well-earned admiration. As a 23-year-old engineering
student at the University of Michigan, Kelly had rescued Gross's
investment in Lockheed by first spotting and then correcting a
critical stability flaw in the twin-engine Lockheed Electra. Kelly's
solution, a distinctive twin-tail, would become a Lockheed
signature, appearing on the Constellation, P-38 and the Hudson
bombers Lockheed built for the British Royal Air Force (see "Uncle
Sam's War Birds On World Frontiers," Jan. 1943, page 19).
Most everyone who worked with Kelly was quick to recognize his
genius. Hall Hibbard, young Kelly's boss at Lockheed, recalled
watching him convert the Electra into the Hudson bomber during a
72-hour marathon redesign session. "That damned Swede can actually
see air," he later told Rich. When Kelly learned of Hibbard's remark
he said it was the greatest compliment he had ever received.
Kelly made no secret of how he worked his magic. He insisted his
engineers get dirty on the shop floor. Working a lot like guys
building hot rods in their garages, engineers and production
mechanics created the hottest planes ever to cut through the air.
This informal process produced the most important planes of the 20th
century, including the Mach 2 F-104 Starfighter, U-2 and SR-71
spy-planes, and the stealthy F-117A. The Skunk Works' contributions
to the creation of the F-22 Raptor and Joint Strike Fighter ensure
its legacy in the shape of the Air Force of the 21st century. And
its experimental stealth ship Sea Shadow means the Skunk Works will
leave its mark on future navies as well.
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Kelly crafted the Skunk Works
reputation as carefully as he engineered his
airplanes, memorializing the company's design
philosophy as a set of 14 work rules. Followed to this
day, they enshrine the virtues of speed, simplicity
and cooperation while banning the evils of paperwork
and excessive management. Their spirit, if not their
precise words, has been adopted by countless
management gurus. Yet the two most important Skunk
Works rules were never committed to paper. "All of the
planes were Kelly's airplanes. And if a blue-suiter
[Air Force officer] wore a star on his shoulder only
Kelly was authorized to deal with him," Rich would
later recall.
Kelly extended his "star" rule to
contact with the CIA. He insisted upon being the sole
contact with the intelligence community, which
would provide the Skunk Works with its two biggest
Cold War successes, the high-flying U-2 and, later,
the SR-71 spy-planes.
Resembling the aftermath of a
head-on collision between a sail-plane and an
airliner, the U-2 was the single most important
intelligence tool of the Cold War. When it was ready
to fly President Dwight D. Eisenhower considered its
mission so critical to national security that he
insisted on personally approving each of its
over-flights of the Soviet Union. The results were
magnificent. "It really was as if we in the
intelligence community had cataracts removed," recalls
former CIA director Richard Helms. "The U-2 camera
leapfrogged us into another dimension altogether." One
of the first major coups was the discovery that a
much-feared "bomber gap" between U.S. B-52 and Soviet
Bison bombers didn't exist. U-2 photos revealed that
the more than 100 Bison counted flying overhead at a
May Day military parade were in fact a fleet of 30
flying in a circle.
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Russians may see SR-71 engines, at left, but not the
radar-carrying stealth blimp. |
Before over-flights of the Soviet
Union officially ended as the result of the downing of
Francis Gary Powers, the folded-optics camera inside
the U-2's "Q-bay" would capture an image that would
spur the Skunk Works to design the most impressive
plane it never built, the CL-400. The un-built plane
would also spawn one of its most enduring mysteries
about what really takes place behind closed hangar
doors.
Intelligence work is largely a hunt
for anomalies. During the height of the Cold War no
anomaly was more ominous than the release of a
scientist from the gulag, the vast network of Soviet
labor camps. When Pyotr Kapitsa, an expert on
low-temperature gases arrested in 1946, suddenly found
himself transferred to a Soviet research institute,
inquiring minds at the CIA wanted to know why. Photos
of hydrogen liquefaction plants taken by U-2 over
flights offered a frightening possibility: Kapitsa had
been "rehabilitated" so that he could work on the
power plant for a hydrogen-powered space plane. During
the last days of World War II, just such a plane had
been proposed as a means of bombing New York City from
flights originating in Germany. Little evidence of
such a craft was ever found after the war. The
possibility that the Soviets had carried it all off
lock, stock and barrel was not beyond reason.
Terrified at the prospect of Soviet
spy planes flying over U.S. airspace with the impunity
that the U-2 crossed Mother Russia, the Skunk Works
found itself with $96 million and an assignment to
build an ultra-secret hydrogen-powered space plane to
counter the new red menace.
For some time before receiving the
go-ahead for Project Suntan, Kelly had been fascinated
with the idea of burning -350 degree F hydrogen in a
modified jet engine. In theory, such a Mach 2 craft
could effortlessly skim the atmosphere at 100,000 ft.
The Skunk Works geared up to provide the Air Force
with a complete package, including a liquid hydrogen
production plant and refueling planes. Literally
overnight the Skunk Works became the world's largest
producer of liquid hydrogen, creating 200 gal. a day.
Meanwhile, the CL-400, as the
Suntan hydrogen aircraft was designated, began to take
shape as a delta-wing vacuum bottle as big as a pair
of B-52s. Encouraged by initial design work, Rich
recalled that Kelly ordered 2 1/2 miles of aluminum
extrusions. Pratt & Whitney was set to work modifying
engines to burn hydrogen. A guidance system was
ordered from MIT. And then Kelly spotted the critical
flaw.
The CL-400 could fly. There was no
question of that. What it couldn't do was fly faster
or farther than a kerosene-burning jet plane. Hydrogen
offered no technological edge. Kelly bit the bullet,
and convinced the Air Force to take back the unspent
$90 million. As for the Soviet plane, it never
materialized. It seems hydrogen-fuel expert Kapitsa
had been freed to work on another project that had
somehow escaped the CIA's notice, the launch of
Sputnik, the world's first successfully orbited
artificial satellite. In 1978, he would win the Nobel
Prize.
The CL-400 vanished from the Skunk Works but the mythology
surrounding a liquid hydrogen spy-plane remained and in time would grow to
become one of the great Skunk Works mysteries, Aurora. The Air Force and
Lockheed insist Aurora is a code name for the company's work on its entry in the
B-2 stealth bomber design competition, which was won by Northrop Aircraft.
Those who chase mystery aircraft point to two facts that
suggest there may be more to the story. There have, they claim, been repeated
sightings of a mystery craft of the CL-400-like proportions moving at high
speed. There is also documentation of a NASA-financed project that overcame the
technical roadblocks that caused Suntan to stumble. In the early 1970s Gerald
Rosen, a professor of physics at Philadelphia's Drexel University and one of the
highest paid theoretical physicists in the United States, was contracted by NASA
to determine whether it would be possible to store hydrogen as individual atoms
rather than as molecules. His calculations predicted it was not only possible,
but that so much fuel could be stored in a small space that the Apollo
astronauts could have traveled to the moon in a rocket the size of a pickup
truck. And so, official denials ignored, Aurora remains a lively topic for
speculation.
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The F-22 |
The Joint Strike Fighter |
Despite the termination of Suntan, the Skunk Works got to
build a fast, high-flying spy-plane, the SR-71 Blackbird. Designed for Mach 3
plus flight (see "The Blackbird Is Back," June 1991, page 27), the SR-71 holds a
slew of records that are not likely to be broken for decades to come. Like the
U-2, the SR-71 also began as a CIA project. And like the U-2, its role was made
obsolete by technology, in this case American technology in the form of CIA and
National Reconnaissance Office spy satellites. Today, most SR-71s, and their
predecessor A-12s, are featured attractions at air museums. NASA continues to
operate one SR-71 for environmental research. A second, operated by the Air
Force, is used from time to time in technology demonstration experiments,
according to military sources.
It was a far different fate than Kelly had envisioned for the
SR-71. Much as he had adapted the Electra to become the British Hudson bomber,
Kelly envisioned manufacturing fleets of the SR-71 specially modified as
bombers, fighters and missile launchers. The government rejected the idea and,
in a decision that will live in infamy for aviation enthusiasts for centuries to
come, ordered the Skunk Works to destroy all SR-71 tooling.
Before being killed in its prime, the SR-71 took part in an
experiment that would pave the Skunk Works' entry into the next frontier of
high-altitude surveillance, Tagboard. The project tested the feasibility of
using the SR-71 to launch a high-speed, high-altitude drone, the D-21, deep into
enemy terrain. After a series of tries, including one that ended in the loss of
a plane and its pilot, Tagboard was canceled.
Combining the lessons learned from Tagboard with the stealth
technology it would later develop for Have Blue, the prototype for the F-117A
(see "Black Jet," July 1990, page 43), the Skunk Works would work with Boeing to
develop DarkStar. Using this low-observable, high-altitude, long-endurance
unmanned aircraft, the Air Force will be able to undertake reconnaissance
missions too far into hostile terrain for manned aircraft and too expensive for
satellites.
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JACK GORDON |
F-117A |
X-33 & Darkstar |
Changing times have rendered the legendary planes of the
Skunk Works militarily obsolete. Kelly and Rich have passed on. In May 1995,
following the merger of Lockheed and Martin Marietta, the new Lockheed Martin
company spun off the Skunk Works as a separate Lockheed operation, based in
Palmdale, Calif. Today, a new generation of designers, plane builders and test
pilots under the leadership of president Jack Gordon carries on the best of the
old Skunk Works traditions. Later this year they will literally blast the Skunk
Works into the 21st century, with the launch of the X-33. A prototype for
Venture Star, a possible replacement for NASA's space shuttle, the X-33 itself
is being considered as a test-bed for a future military space plane. Tales of
mystery craft continue. There have been scores of sightings of a 1000-ft.-long
stealth blimp that supposedly carries a massive phased array radar. The craft is
said to disguise itself by using "optical stealth" technology that creates an
image of a floating star field.
By their nature, the type of "black projects" undertaken by
the Skunk Works always have and always will be secret. What PM has learned
through its conversations with company executives and test pilots and visits to
non-restricted parts of the Skunk Works is only as much as the company and
government are willing to share. It is certain that there is far more to the
Skunk Works story than can now be told. Looking at the tall white hangars
gleaming in the high desert sun, we can't help but wonder what 21st century
wonders are taking shape inside.
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Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works
Celebrates Its Diamond Anniversary |
Palmdale, CA, June 17, 2003 --
Lockheed Martin's [NYSE: LMT] renowned Skunk
Works officially marks its 60th Anniversary today.
Once the informal name for the Lockheed organization led by
Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson that produced many of America's most technologically
advanced aircraft, the Skunk Works has made an indelible mark on aviation
history. The Skunk Works is regarded worldwide as one of the most respected
design and development names in aeronautics.
During the heat of World War II, Johnson, Lockheed's famed
aircraft designer, forged a team of engineers behind tightly closed doors in
makeshift facilities in Burbank, Calif., and designed and developed the P-80
Shooting Star, the Air Force's first truly operational jet fighter, in a mere
143 days.
Since then, this organization continues within Lockheed
Martin and has given shape to many "firsts" such as the F-104 Starfighter, the
first Mach 2 aircraft; the U-2 reconnaissance aircraft, which is still the
highest flying single engine airplane; and the SR-71 "Blackbird" reconnaissance
aircraft, which was the first to fly at speeds in excess of Mach 3. The SR 71,
which has been retired, is still the highest flying and fastest jet aircraft
ever developed.
The Skunk Works is also responsible for development of the
F-117 Nighthawk, the world's first operational stealth fighter, and led
development of the YF-22 Advanced Tactical Fighter, the forerunner of today's
F/A 22 Raptor, the first aircraft to combine stealth, supercruise, super
maneuverability, and highly integrated avionics.
More recently, the Skunk Works led the development and flight
testing of the Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems X 35 Joint Strike
Fighter (JSF) prototypes Included in this effort was the successful flight
testing of the innovative lift fan system on the X-35B demonstrator. The
successful testing of this revolutionary vertical landing capability was a key
factor in the Lockheed Martin team's win in the JSF competition. With production
of the F 35 aircraft scheduled to last for four decades, the JSF program will
likely be the largest defense contract in history.
How did the Skunk Works name come into being? The actual
facts have been veiled by time. But there is no doubt that it was derived from
the "Skonk Works" in Al Capp's popular 1940s-era "Li'l Abner" comic strip that
appeared in newspapers nationwide. It is believed that Irv Culver, a talented
designer who worked on Johnson's original 1943 P-80 development team was
responsible for the name.
Johnson, who died in 1990, noted in his autobiography, "The
legend goes that one of our engineers - I guess it was Culver - was asked 'What
is Kelly doing in there?' He's stirring up some kind of brew,' was the answer.
This brought to mind Li'l Abner and the hairy Indian in that strip who regularly
stirred up a big brew, throwing in skunks, old shoes and other material to make
his 'Kickapoo joy juice.'"
Culver's version differs. He recalled that World War II
secrecy dictated that Lockheed engineers could not even identify their office
when answering the phone. The isolation reminded him of the much-shunned
Kickapoo joy juice works in the comic strip. So one day when a group of Pentagon
military officers placed a conference call, he answered, "Skonk Works, inside
man, Culver." After an awkward pause one of the officers asked, "What?" Culver
repeated, "Skonk Works," and the name stuck.
Nestled in the fringes of California's Mojave Desert,
Advanced Development Programs (a.k.a. The Skunk Works) today continues its
notable tradition by developing transformational strategies and classified
products in a "quick", "quiet" and "quality" manner to support its varied
customers. It continues to "brew" up new innovations that are and will serve our
nation's defense for decades to come. The Skunk Works unique unmanned products,
i.e. Desert Hawk and FPASS recently saw action in both Afghanistan and Iraq.
Frank Cappuccio is the current Vice President and General
Manager of the "Skunk Works". Frank started his Lockheed Martin career in the
Skunk Works and is committed to keeping this national asset in the forefront of
aeronautical technology and products. His vision, like Kelly Johnson's is
simple: Superior products through innovation.
Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., headquartered in Fort Worth,
Texas, is a leader in the design, development, systems integration, production
and support of advanced military aircraft and related technologies. Its
customers include the military services of the United States and allied
countries throughout the world. Products include the F-16, F/A-22, F-35 JSF,
F-117, T-50, C-5, C-130, C-130J, P-3, S-3 and U-2.
Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin employs about
135,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design,
development, manufacture, integration and sustaining of advanced technology
systems, products and services.
