Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works Celebrates 80 Years

 

Warzone/The Drive: Skunk Works Teases Tailless NGAD Fighter Design In New Ad 

 Lockheed is celebrating 80 years of Skunk Works with some new hints of what they are working on, SR-72 and NGAD ‘fighter’ included. 

Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works is celebrating its 80th anniversary. A marketing push around this milestone has been underway and today we got a new ad for it that includes a look at an intriguing tailless manned tactical jet concept. It's in line with what we have seen from the bleeding edge design firm in the recent past surrounding the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) initiative.  

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 WNU Editor: I cannot think of any other organization that has an equivalent long list of accomplishments.

Lockheed Will Not Comment On Recent Video Exposing Mystery Aviation Technology At Secret Testing Base

The video: pic.twitter.com/Unhq9lsHwE

— Ruben Hofs (@rubenhofs) September 22, 2021

Daily Caller: Lockheed Exec Refuses To Comment On Video Exposing Mystery Aviation Technology On Secret Testing Base 

The general manager of Lockheed’s most secretive arm, known as “Skunk Works”, refused to comment Tuesday on a mysterious aviation technology spotted recently at a Lockheed testing facility in the Mojave Desert outside of Palmdale, California. 

A video began making the rounds on Twitter Sept. 22 exposing an oddly shaped, sleek aircraft being loaded onto a flatbed trailer. 

The video was re-posted by Ruben Hofs, an aviation enthusiast, who he says stumbled across it on TikTok.  

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WNU Editor: As I had mentioned in this post .... Future Fighter Concepts Spotted At Lockheed Martin’s Helendale Radar Test Range (September 25, 2021) .... I thought this was a super top secret site?!?!?!?

Inside Skunk Works

Lockheed Martin’s newest Skunk Works facility spans 215,000 square feet in the California desert. | Courtesy of Lockheed Martin  

Politico: Inside Skunk Works, Lockheed’s super-secret weapons facility  

The world's largest defense contractor opens the gate to its aircraft factory in the desert. 

PALMDALE, Calif. — Sixty-two miles north of Los Angeles, this desert town known as America’s Aerospace Valley is home to one of the most secretive aircraft design and production programs on the planet. 

Few are allowed in, but the sky is littered with clues of the work being done behind the high fences topped with barbed wire. 

It’s routine to spot a U-2 spy plane or a Janet 737, a highly classified fleet of aircraft used to shuttle military and contractors between Palmdale and places such as Area 51, the storied Nevada base. 

Back on the ground, at the corner of Sierra Highway and Avenue N, sits an empty lot with a flagpole in the center. 

Jet spotters and spies from all over the world gather here to catch a glimpse, clicking away as the newest, most top-secret aircraft soar above Skunk Works, Lockheed Martin’s research and development facility. 

It’s their only chance to see them; there’s no view of the runway or the planes sitting on the tarmac.  

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WNU Editor: The place is huge.

Here Is Everything We Know About Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works' Secretive 'Speed Racer' Program

 

Warzone/The Drive: Here's Everything We Know About Skunk Works' Secretive 'Speed Racer' Program 

The design is primarily intended to validate new digital engineering tools and techniques, but that could be just the beginning. 

Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works advanced projects bureau has officially revealed the design of its secretive Speed Racer air vehicle. The missile-shaped unmanned system is ostensibly intended to serve as an experiment in digital engineering techniques, but has the potential to be the basis for future swarming drones and low-cost cruise missiles. 

Steve Trimble, Aviation Week's defense editor and friend of The War Zone, was first to report on the new information about Speed Racer. He was also able to confirm that a computer-generated segment in a video Lockheed Martin had released ahead of the Air Force Associations' 2021 Virtual Aerospace Warfare Symposium, which wrapped up yesterday, did indeed depict this air vehicle. The company similarly acknowledged that a rendering it released last year was also of Speed Racer. 

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WNU Editor: More details on this program are here .... Skunk Works Is About to Test a Secret New Aircraft Called 'Speed Racer' (Popular Mechanics), here .... Speed Racer: The U.S. Military's New Drone Swarm Weapon? (National Interest), and here .... Is Lockheed Martin’s ‘Secret’ Unmanned Aircraft ‘Speed Racer’ Ready For Take-Off? (The EurAsian Times).

A Revealing Look At The Culture At Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works (Video)

New Skunk Works Video Shows Past, Present, And Glimpses Of Warplanes In The Future

Popular Mechanics: Can You Spot All the Legendary Planes and Future Concepts in This New Skunk Works Video?

From fighters to fusion reactors.

The world famous Skunk Works development team has released a new video celebrating 75 years of cranking out some of the most amazing military aircraft the world has ever seen. The quick clip shows off aircraft from the early days of Lockheed Martin's Advanced Development Programs division, AKA the Skunk Works, and offers glimpses of new warplanes we may see in the next 10 to 20 years.

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WNU Editor: A lot of history .... and some cool concepts on what future planes may look like.

A Review Of The Book 'The Projects of Skunkworks: 75 Years of Lockheed Martin's Advanced Development Programs'

Tom Rogan, Washington Free Beacon: The Brains of the Operation

Review: Steve Pace, 'The Projects of Skunkworks: 75 Years of Lockheed Martin's Advanced Development Programs'

In 1937, the Army Air Corps “called for a twin-engine interceptor to pursue and destroy enemy aircraft at high altitude. It also called for a maximum level-altitude flight speed of at least 360 miles per hour and the ability to reach an altitude of 20,000 feet within six minutes. These were unheard-of performance goals at that time in aviation history, and they required the design of an advanced fighter in the truest sense of that phrase.”

Lockheed’s response to that proposal was the P-38 Lightning, a heavy fighter that was instrumental in long-range air missions during the Second World War. The Projects of Skunk Works is filled with such stories. The book shows how Lockheed—now Lockheed Martin, the 500-pound gorilla of defense contractors—programs have produced some of the most extraordinary aircraft in world history.

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WNU Editor: It looks interesting.

A Peak Into Lockheed Martin's 'Skunk Works'

Under Pressure, Lockheed Opens Up About Secret Weapons Unit -- Reuters

Dec 10 (Reuters) - Lockheed Martin Corp , the Pentagon's No. 1 weapons supplier, has rarely felt the need to blow its horn about its secrecy-shrouded crown jewel - until now.

"Skunk Works," Lockheed's business for developing weapons outside the company's main chain of command, is starting to lift the veil in a sign of fierce pressure to win new orders and protect its brand as military budgets shrink.

The pride of Lockheed, Skunk Works has been celebrated since it developed the first jet fighter in 143 days during World War Two to battle the Nazis. But its logo was kept off buildings and employees were barred from saying where they worked.

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More News On Lockheed Martin's 'Skunk Works'

Factbox: Lockheed's Skunk Works behind many U.S. military aircraft -- Fiscal Times/Reuters
Lockheed Reveals Secret “Skunk Works” Weapons Operation -- 2 Paragraphs
U.S.-Russia Cold War Looms as America Taps Lockheed Martin for New-Gen Planes with Hypersonic Missiles, Speed -- IBTimes
Secrets of the Skunk Works -- Air & Space

WNU Editor: Lockheed Martin's 'Skunk Works' web page is here.

My Visit Inside Skunk Works

The Skunk Works (Photo by Stephen Trimble)

From Flight Global:

PALMDALE, Calif. -- I suppose getting invited to enter Skunk Works shouldn't make much sense. The secret-squirrel types like it that way. You can ask the public relations office repeatedly for several years, as I did, for a site visit, and get nowhere. Then one day you ask for a phone interview about a semi-obscure project, and -- voila! -- they ask you to come to Palmdale to see it in the hangar. If the Skunk Works organization has a motto, it should be: "Don't call us, we'll call you. ... Really, don't call us."

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My Comment: I want to know more.