I'm John Batchler, and it is the 1930s. The Depression is over. Really? Is it? I don't think so. It's coming back.

However, our protagonist, Kelly Johnson, has a job at something called the Lockheed Corporation,

which didn't that go bankrupt for heaven's sake? Josh Dean is here, the author of The Impossible

Factory, the remarkable true story of Kelly Johnson and the Lockheed.

We, Corporation, we began with the Kelly Johnson design of the P-38 and the great success during the Second War.

We need to build the Lockheed Corporation because it's not the first, second, third, or fourth choice of the Department of War or anybody in Washington.

Where did it come from, Josh?

Who was driving it when Kelly got there?

So Lockheed had been started by two Scottish brothers, and it had a very different spelling,

L-O-U-G-H-E-A-D, I believe.

And then they were quite smart and innovative, but like so

many startups, it didn't work out. They changed the name to Lockheed. It ends up in bankruptcy.

A guy named Robert Gross puts together some investors and purchases Lockheed out of bankruptcy

for $40,000 and sets up shop in an old pottery factory in Burbank.

You know, at one point, they were so broke that only only one person was getting paid.

You know, it was a classic startup story, honestly.

Even though they didn't start it, it was run like a startup.

And that's the perfect environment for someone like Kelly.

I mean, you see it in technology today.

When the company doesn't have a lot of

money or a lot of employees, but it's very ambitious and hungry to innovate, young, brilliant

people tend to thrive. And Kelly sees an opportunity to make his impact. And in fact, not only does

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