In 1943, America was in the throws of World War II. Our enemies were strong and dedicated. We believed that we were in eminent danger of attack on our shores. We did not know if we would prevail.
Germany already had an operational jet. The US Air Force needed an airplane designed and built around the newly developed Whittle jet engine. They turned to Kelly Johnson at the Lockheed Company in Burbank, CA to develop the XP-80. Kelly knew that he needed absolute control of the project, with very little oversite from management or the government, in order to accomplish this task. He took a small select group of engineers and fabricators to an isolated part of the Lockheed B-1 plant near San Fernando Rd. and Empire and set them to work. Out of that effort came the P-80, America’s first production jet aircraft and the Lockheed Skunk Works was born in Burbank, CA.
We are proud that the Skunk Works was born in Burbank and we want to preserve that history. It survived here for 50 plus years and many amazing aircraft were designed and built in beige tin buildings along Empire Ave. and Hollywood Way. The buildings are gone now but the history that was made here survives.
It is most important that we document what we can of this great work while we still can. It was of the highest secrecy and many workers believe it still is not to be talked about even today. I believe we can now discuss in general what happened here and that we should know about how the men and women of the Lockheed Skunk Works managed to create such amazing aircraft by hand and before computers. If you know of someone with knowledge of this work, please write it down or video tape and consider donating a copy to this effort.
I recognize that the term “Skunk Works” is a registered trademark of the Lockheed (now Lockheed Martin ) Company and I do not wish to infringe on their rights. We are merely staking claim to our local history, and a great one it is…
I hear that the new Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company is choosing to discontinue the name "Skunk Works". Is this true?
If you want the official story of Lockheed you can access
their web site at: 
( Don't bother looking for any reference to 'Burbank', the birthplace of the Lockheed Skunk Works )
Webmaster is J. Ron Dickson at JRDickson@Earthlink.net