Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Skunkworks

Episode Date: November 6, 2021

62 miles north of Los Angeles in the city of Palmdale, California, lies one of the most secretive aircraft design and production centers in the world: Lockheed Martin's Advanced Development Program. From this location, some of the most famous and important military aircraft in the 20th and 21st centuries were created….and they are still working on new aircraft today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

62 miles north of Los Angeles in the city of Palmdale, California, lies one of the most secretive aircraft design and production centers in the world, Lockheed Martin's Advanced Development Program. From this location, some of the most famous and important military aircraft in the 20th and 21st centuries were created, and they're still working on new aircraft today. Learn more about Skunkworks, one of the world's most secretive design facilities for over 75 years on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Do you ever climb into bed ready to sleep, only to have to have to have to have a little?

have your mind start racing the moment your head hits the pillow? Thoughts bouncing around, replaying the day or jumping ahead to tomorrow? That is exactly why Catherine Nicolai created Nothing Much Happens. Each episode is a gentle, cozy bedtime story where, well, nothing much happens. No drama, no tension, nothing you need to follow closely. Just soft narration, calming repetition, and soothing sensory details designed to help your mind slow down and your body relax. It's not about entertainment, it's about rest. And millions of listeners around the world use it every night to quiet their thoughts and finally fall asleep. If you've ever struggled to shut your brain off at night, this might be exactly what you've

been missing. You can listen to Nothing Much Happens wherever you get your podcasts. Episodes are every Monday and Thursday. The history of the Lockheed Skunk Works has two different starting points. The first unofficial beginning was in 1939. The United States ordered the creation of a high-speed, high-altitude fighter aircraft that could counter the fighter aircraft the Germans. They created the Lockheed P-38 Lightning. Lockheed took their engineers and physically separated them from the rest of the company to work on the project, and no one else knew what they were working on. The plane had a very distinct look, with two booms and two tails. They also integrated several unique features which were seen for the first time in combat aircraft,

including flushed rivets to help reduce aerodynamic drag. The more formal beginning of the Skunkworks project was in 1943. Germany had created the Messerschmitt, M.E. 262, which was the world's first jet fighter. The plane was far and away more advanced than anything the Allies had. It was the fastest fighter aircraft ever, and it was over 100 miles per hour faster than the fastest allied aircraft. Thankfully, the Germans never created many of them, but the jet engine was a huge technical advantage over anything the Allies had. The United States Army came to Lockheed and asked them if they could develop a jet aircraft that could counter the threat of the German jet fighters. An engineer named Clarence Kelly Johnson took a team

of hand-picked engineers, and, as they did in 1939, separated themselves from the rest of the company and went to work. They were literally working in a rented circus tent because there was no space available elsewhere in the Lockheed facilities. In just 143 days, they had completely designed and built the first versions of the XP80 shooting star. They did almost all of the project without a contract, just on a handshake deal with the government. It was America's first jet fighter, and it saw service through the Korean War. Kelly Johnson's approach in building a new aircraft in just under five months was revolutionary. The name Skunkworks came about by accident. There was an engineer working on the XP80 team named Irv Culver. He was a fan of the little Abner comic strip. In the comic, there was a hidden place

deep in the woods called The Stonk Works, which is where they brew a strong alcoholic beverage. During the program, it was so secret that everyone was careful how they answered the phone. Colvert would answer the phone by saying, Skunk Works, inside Man Culver speaking. Soon everyone began using the name Skunkworks to describe where they worked, and over time, skunk works simply became skunk works. Today the name is an actual registered trademark

of the Lockheed Martin Corporation, and the Skunk Works facility has its own skunk-based logo. The Skunk Works Group soon became a permanent part of the company. They worked on government projects, almost always for the American military, which involved cutting-edge technology and engineering. For the entirety of the Cold War, the Skunk Works facility was located in Burbank, California,

next to the Burbank Airport. Just to be absolutely clear, Skunk Works is not Area 51. You can drive to the Skunk Works facility in California, whereas you can't get anywhere near the Groom Lake facility in Nevada, a.k.a. Area 51, which will be doing an episode on in the future. What exactly did they do at this facility since the end of World War II?

Well, what they developed and built is basically a who's who of American military aircraft. In 1954, they were given a contract from the CIA to build a high-altitude spy plane. What they created was the U-2 spy plane. The U-2 had its first test flight in 1955, and it flew in regular service for decades. Its primary defense mechanism against surface-to-air missiles was to just fly extremely high in the air. The U-2 could operate at 70,000 feet, which is twice the altitude of a commercial passenger. passenger jet. A U-2 was famously shot down in 1960 over the Soviet Union, and the pilot, Francis Gary Powers, was captured and was subject to a show trial in Moscow. There was a second

U-2 shot down during the Cuban Missile Crisis as well. However, the plane, believe it or not, is still in service today, and they were manufactured up until 1989. Spy satellites replaced them for remote viewing over the Soviet Union, but they continued to be used elsewhere in the world, and it is still used today. They knew the U-2 would have limited life, so the next to the next spy plane they built was the Lockheed A-12. This was first flown in 1962, and it had a very short life. And by the way, the A-12 is one of the things that Elon Musk's child was named after in that crazy unpronounceable name that he gave it. The A-12 was replaced by the SR-71, the fastest plane in history. I've previously done an entire episode on the SR-71, so I'm not going to spend too much

time on it, but to say it solved the problems of the U2 spy plane by just flying faster than anything that could possibly catch it. It set records for both speed and altitude. The highest speed ever recorded was Mach 3.3, or approximately 2,200 miles per hour or 3,500 kilometers per hour. It also reached an altitude of 85,000 feet. It flew from New York to London in one hour and 54 minutes, and that included in-flight refueling. In the 1950s, they also developed and produced the F-10. 4 Starfighter. This was the first fighter aircraft that could hit Mach 2, and over 2,500 of them were produced, mostly for use during the Vietnam War. In the 1970s, a new type of aircraft was commissioned. Instead of flying fast and high, the new goal was not to be seen by enemy radar, and this was called

stealth. In 1976, the Skunk Works facility began work on technical demonstrations for the U.S. Air Force. They had something ready in just 18 months, and that became the basis for the F-117 Stealth Fighter, which began construction in 1978. Although it was called the Stealth Fighter, it was actually just used for ground attacks. Its first flight took place in 1981 at Groom Lake, and it was operational in 1983. However, its existence was kept secret until 1988, when it was finally revealed to the public. It was never used that widely, and its most famous usage was in 1991 during the Iraq War. Its primary mission was to be in a first-wave sortie into heavily defended airspace to take out radar and anti-aircraft installations.

There are still a few F-117s in service today, although they're not regularly used. Going into the 21st century, Skunk Works has done a significant amount of development into unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, or more commonly known as drones. They developed the RQ 170 Sentinel, which is a stealth reconnaissance drone. It saw extensive use in Afghanistan and was nicknamed the Beast of Kandahar, after a photo of it was leaked before it became public. They also created the Desert Hawk and Desert Hawk 3 drones. These are very small drones made out of a lightweight foam, and it's designed to be launched

and used by ground forces. They're literally launched with a bungee cord and they only weigh eight pounds when fully equipped. Several hundred of them are still in use by the British military. Skunkworks is still in operations today, and they're still working on cutting-edge designs. They're developing a successor to the SR-71 Blackbird called the SR-72. It's designed to fly twice as fast as the SR-71 at Mach 6, and it will use an innovative, Scramjet engine. The hope is to have a test flight by 2025. They have also worked on non-aircraft projects, including a fusion reactor and a stealth ship known as the Sea Shadow. Over the years, the Skunk Works facility has been one of the most recognized and awarded aeronautical facilities in the

world. It has received eight Collier trophies, which are awarded annually by the National Aeronautics Association for the greatest achievement in aeronautics or astronautics in America during the preceding year. They've won the National Medal of Technology and Innovation in 2007, and in 2009 the program was admitted to the International Air and Space Hall of Fame. Today, the term Skunk Works is used generally for any project where a company sequesters a team to work on a special or secret project. The biggest lessons from the Skunkworks program aren't necessarily the aircraft they developed. It was their ability to go from idea to creation for a brand new aircraft in such a short period of time. And besides, it's entirely possible

that their greatest creations are things that we don't even know about. The associate producers of Everything Everywhere Daily are Thor Thompson and Peter Bennett. Today's review comes from listener T. Shane Rogers over on Apple Podcasts. They write, Informative and entertaining. If you're a fan of lifelong learning, this podcast will quickly become an indispensable part of your daily routine. The sheer amount of information conveyed is awe-inspiring, yet it never becomes pedantic or boring. So glad I found this show. Thanks, T-Shane. Lifelong learning is really the thing that I think separates people. Hopefully, this podcast can be used to get more people curious about the world around them.

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