Skunk Works: The Dream Factory for War

just before we get started with today's video i don't want to give a quick plug to my new podcast the casual criminalist if you're a fan of darker stuff well definitely check out that show it's a little bit different to mega projects but if you like you know the darker side of things please do check it out there is a link below [Music] in 1943 the us government approached lockheed aircraft corporation to develop and build the country's first high-speed fighter aircraft proposals like this usually take years to deliver but lockheed was given just 180 days such were the strains of war apparently a daunting mammoth task faced the designers engineers and mechanics at lockheed and well the big question came up could they actually do it and not only did they deliver but they did so 37 days early and with that the legend of lockheed skunk works began now if you're an avid follower of this mega project channel then this name might sound familiar after all this is the lockheed division that's been responsible for the majority of the groundbreaking aviation seen in the united states since world war ii take your pick from the u2 the sr-71 blackbird the f-117 nighthawk f-22 raptor and the f-35 lightning ii skunk works did them all this is a mega project that essentially produces mega projects some if we were in 2014 we'd call it mega projection pioneering yet highly secret exact information on skunk works can be sketchy but it's difficult to imagine anywhere on the planet that has contributed more to aviation warfare than what resides in the u.s air force plant 42 in palmdale california but its scope and reputation have gone much further than military boundaries the framework used at skunk works with its focus on rapid development and out of the box innovation has now been copied by companies across the world in this video we're going to focus on skunk works as a whole and we'll only touch briefly on the various aircraft that they have developed as i mentioned we've already done videos on a number of these planes so if you're looking for something more detailed on a specific aircraft it's probably worth checking out that video just youtube search megaprojects and then the name of whatever you're looking for and it's probably going to come up i would link them below but i'm too lazy let us begin with the name the story of how skunk works came to have this slightly odd name begins back in the 1930s with a popular satirical comic strip called lil abner written by alcap lil abner followed the fortunes of little abner yokom a simple yet lovable hillbilly character living in the small kentucky town of dog patch on the outskirts of dog patch lay a noxious dilapidated factory called skunk works which produced skunk oil by grinding down dead skunks and worn shoes apparently this was of course moonshine at a time when prohibition was still in place the story goes that during the development of the p-80 shooting star america's first high-speed aircraft that we mentioned at the beginning of the video the small lockheed division was located next to a plastic factory producing the same kind of detestable sting that had been envisioned while reading lil abner those working amid the stench came to refer to their dwelling as skunk works and the name stuck it wasn't until the 1960s when representatives from the comic book contacted lockheed to request that it changed the name of its advanced development company and they did do skunk works that's got to be the only time in history where a comic book was the buzzkill on a weapons manufacturer [Music] there's nothing that lights a fire under a development team than discovering that your enemy is far far ahead when informed of the new messerschmitt 262 the world's first fighter jets appearing in spring of 1943 the allies realized they were well behind with the impending invasion of france no doubt front and center in their mind u.s military commanders knew that they had to get their hands on aircraft that could at least compete with the messerschmitt 262. they turned to the lockheed aircraft corporation which was already churning out aircraft battle in both the european and asian conflicts as fast as they possibly could as important as this new aircraft would be lockheed knew that current production had to remain top priority the response was to create a smaller group led by chief engineer clarence kelly johnson the team initially composed of 23 engineers and 30 mechanics could not be housed the main lockheed plant because every conceivable bit of space was being used for war production instead this mishmash renegade group was housed on the site of an old circus next to the plastic factory that we mentioned just a moment ago the requirements that this group faced were immense not only did the aircraft need to be ready in 180 days it also needed to fly at close to 600 miles per hour 200 miles per hour faster than lockheed's p-38 lightning propeller planes that were currently in mass production it was a tall task johnson submitted the design proposal in mid-june and the clock immediately began ticking eventually up to 130 people were involved in the production of the p-80 but such was the secrecy that only between five and ten people actually knew that they were working on the first american fighter jet on the 16th of november 37 days ahead of schedule the first prototype nicknamed lulu bell appeared at murakami airfield not only had the skunk works division succeeded but they had also produced an aircraft that had effectively made up the years of german superiority in terms of jet usage the strange final twist however was that only two p80s were ever used in world war ii and only for reconnaissance missions over italy the mass production of the p-80 had been held up and was followed by a fatal accident in the uk after which the new aircraft were grounded as a precaution by the time they were ready allied air superiority was almost total and the war was nearly over [Music] no sooner had america's enemies been defeated then new suspicions arose as we know the end of world war ii coincided neatly with the beginning of the cold war as it quickly became apparent that humans always seem to need an enemy but the world had changed and so had the methods of warfare spying was now the name of the game and if the u.s could do it at a height that would make an aircraft untouchable by soviet planes well even better in 1955 the cia approached lockheed about building a spy plane that could fly higher than anything before it this contract was taken up by skunk works who began developing plans for what would eventually become the u2 this was the first step of a series of groundbreaking designs that would cement lockheed as the united states is preeminent producer of aircraft during the cold war the u2 took to the skies in 1956 and was eventually used for several overflight missions crossing the soviet union this came to a shuddering halt in 1960 when a u2 was shot down by a surface-to-air missile while in soviet airspace the entire fiasco was an embarrassment to the u.s and the u-2 never ventured into soviet territory again though it was later used over vietnam next came a contract to build five a12 archangels at a reported total cost of 96 million dollars around 827 million dollars today this would be an aircraft capable of traveling at a height of 26 000 meters that's 85 000 feet and speeds of max 3.5 when the u.s military began exploring the possibilities for such an aircraft they were initially attracted to a rival convair design but thanks to convair's slightly shaky recent track record along with skunkworks's burgeoning reputation the lockheed team won out the a-12 had its maiden flight in 1962 but it didn't end a service until 1967 before being retired in 1968 not because it was no good but with the shooting down of the u2 in 1960 americans thinking regarding flights over the soviet union had changed dramatically the rapid development of soviet missiles had rendered the a12's impressive altitude just irrelevant but many aspects of the a12 were shifted over to the next dazzling piece of military hardware that appeared out of the skunk works factory the sr-71 blackbird combined high altitude rapid speed and a low radar cross-section which made it almost invisible in the skies almost all of what goes on at skunk works even to this day is highly classified but the sr-71 was in an entirely different league developed under black project conditions only a handful of people were said to know the true nature of the sr-71 the aircraft made its first test flight in 1964 and remained in service until 1998 capable of speeds up to 3540 kilometers an hour and with a service ceiling of 85 000 feet 26 000 meters aviation changed with the introduction of the f-117 nighthawk in 1983. otherwise known as the stealth fighter it was an aircraft that revolutionized the industry looking more like what batman would fly rather than a traditional military aircraft the f-117 was the first aircraft to fully and successfully implement stealth technology by this point clarence kelly johnson had retired and had been replaced as skunk works by his protege ben rich sometimes rather lordingly described as the father of stealth technology richard tasked bill schroeder a lockheed mathematician and dennis overhaulser a computer scientist to expand on the work of piatta ufimitsev a soviet mathematician who in 1964 published a paper titled method of edge waves in the physical theory of diffraction in which he stated that the strength of the radar returned from an object was not related to the size but rather its configuration the team at skunk works developed a computer program named echo which was able to design an aircraft composed almost entirely of flat sides stitched together in such a way that it would scatter 99 of incoming radar signal energy making the aircraft almost invisible in the early 1980s rumors began emanating of a new mystery aircraft the crash of an f-117 in the sequoia national forest which killed the pilot and started a forest fire certainly didn't help as armed guards and even a roving gunship moved in it must have been clear to everybody in the area that whatever had crashed was a closely guarded secret ironically the f-117 has gone on to become one of the most recognizable aircraft anywhere in the world if you think that skunk works may have eased up in more recent times then think again the introduction of the f-22 rapture in 2005 and the f-35 lightning ii in 2015 has proven that this secretive development group is still head and shoulders above the rest in 2007 president george w bush presented the national medal of technology and innovation to the skunk works for its record of developing cutting-edge aircraft technologies and systems for the us government it was the first time that the medal had been bestowed on a member of the aviation industry unfortunately we just don't have time to go through everything that has been developed at skunk works as it is a long list from unmanned drones like the d21 large-scale cargo planes like the x-55 or unmanned aerial vehicles like the mysterious rq-170 sentinel the skunk works his back catalog over the last few decades is wildly impressive [Music] it is estimated that skunkworks is currently working on as many as 500 individual projects most of these won't even get past the design or development stage but it does give a brief glimpse at the extraordinary scope this division is working on one interesting project that has been in the pipeline for nearly two decades is quiet supersonic technology which is hoped will lead to the construction of a supersonic business jet capable of flying at speeds of mach 1.6 to 1.8 at a height of 60 000 feet if you're wondering about the quiet part of the name it's hoped that this technology will be able to dramatically reduce the noise of the aircraft as it goes supersonic normally a sonic boom is heard as the aircraft passes through the threshold but if skunk works delivers this aircraft will be virtually boomless this was a project that was officially announced in 2000 but there hasn't been much news on it since 2013. perhaps some of the most fascinating technology currently being developed at skunk works doesn't involve new aircraft though but rather how existing aircraft ground troops and even naval vessels can communicate with one another on the battlefield known as open systems architecture this system has the potential to completely revolutionize warfare by allowing sensors software video and targeting across various military units to collaborate in real time this is the potential to be a dramatic game changer just imagine if troops on the ground could use all the information being gathered from a spy plane above using handheld monitors or how much more effective airstrikes could be if all the aircraft involved could share real-time data as the attack progressed over the last decade skunk works has taken part in a series of test operations which have gradually increased in size and complexity including project missouri project iguana and last year with the wonderfully named project riot this is something skunk works has been working on for some time now but it is not immediately clear when it's going to be rolled out in the military finally there's the hypersonic weapon traveling at speeds of up to 24 695 kilometers an hour the agm-183 arrow uses a boost glide system propelled by a rocket to reach speeds thought to be roughly eight times faster than any missile on the planet and yes this is the weapon that president trump famously referred to as a super-duper missile in 2018 the u.s air force awarded lockheed martin a contract worth 480 million dollars to develop and produce the missile and it's believed that it should be available sooner rather than later it is a statement to the extraordinary work done at skunkworks that the term skunkworks has come to define any smaller innovative group within a larger company often working completely autonomously and with sizeable budgets they are sometimes referred to as disruptive elements not because of their bad behavior but because they are constantly challenging the status quo and pushing innovation at a rapid pace the skug works framework was laid out decades ago by pioneering leader clarence johnson with his 14 rules and practices that remain on the lockheed website to this day i'm not going to go through them all right now but i can tell you that much of the focus is on speed daring innovation small groups fluidity and rewards for those involved ibm famously used the process to develop their first ibm pc in less than a year in the 1980s and most large companies around the world now use the same kind of framework for their own skunk works divisions google has google x amazon has lab 126 and a9 boeing has its phantom works and who can forget the small little company known as apple who used the same kind of framework when steve jobs hand-picked a group of 20 people and produced the macintosh [Music] the skunk works division recently celebrated its 75th birthday 75 years of producing next generation aviation hardware have placed skunkworks into a category with few if any rivals considering the comings and goings that occur over just a couple of decades let alone 75 years it's extraordinary that it has retained its ferocious drive and record of ground-breaking innovation skunk works may not be able to put an aircraft in the sky after just 143 days anymore but it is a group that has gone far beyond near nuts and bolts a group with daring imagination a place where war dreams come true so i really hope you found that mega project that makes mega projects interesting if you did smash that like button below as always if you've got a suggestion for mega projects please do leave it in the comments below if you see something you like upvote it click 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Channel: Megaprojects

Views: 998,222

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Id: rETfcviH1uY

Length: 15min 55sec (955 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 01 2021