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Inside Skunk Works

Introducing Inside Skunk Works

Inside Skunk Works

Lockheed Martin

Technology

4.9541 Ratings

🗓️ 19 February 2018

⏱️ 1 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

75 years ago in Burbank, California, engineer Kelly Johnson devised an operational concept so unique it is still celebrated today. As the birthplace of many revolutionary technologies – from America’s first fighter jet to the classified programs of today – Skunk Works® sets the precedent for how our most critical and difficult problems are solved. This podcast brings to light the dark, classified world of the secret Lockheed Martin organization. First-hand accounts and stories passed down from generation to generation within the walls of Skunk Works are made public for the first time. And yes – we’ll talk about compact fusion! For exclusive content, check out our show notes at lockheedmartin.com/insideskunkworks Email us at insideskunkworks.lm@lmco.com Produced by Theresa Hoey & Claire Whitfield Artwork by Becca Smith

Transcript

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0:00.0

In other places when your boss tells you something, people go do it.

0:07.0

At the skunk works when your boss tells you something, it's the start of a discussion.

0:13.0

This is a place where people exist beyond the bounds of possibility.

0:17.0

If we had known how hard it was going to be to do, we probably wouldn't have tried.

0:21.6

One day out of blue, he calls me up, said, hey, you want to come fly the F-117?

0:26.6

It's a place where risk is the norm.

0:29.6

Hundreds of successes don't equate to a single failure that you've experienced.

0:34.6

We have built vehicles that we knew we were going to crash

0:38.3

because we wanted to go experiment out at the very edge of the envelope.

0:43.3

Skunkworks is a place where history continues to inspire the future.

0:48.3

The first thing I would tell somebody to do is just walk outside and look up.

0:54.4

The sun is burning right there.

0:56.2

That's the example of a fusion reactor.

0:58.0

The effusion reactor that powers everything we see around us.

1:00.9

What gives energy to all of us.

1:02.9

Now you're thinking big. I like it.

1:06.1

This is Inside Skunkworks, and we'll see you back on March 11th.

1:14.0

Shut the recorder off a second. I'll tell you a story.

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