I'm John Bachelor. The author Josh Dean is here with his new book, The Impossible Factory,

the remarkable story of Kelly Johnson, Clarence Kelly Johnson, and the Lockheed Corporation.

It is now the Cold War, beginning in 1948, with the Berlin airlift and the challenge by

Stalin against not only America, but the whole of Western

Europe. And what is to be done? The U.S. Air Force, newly born out of the rearrangement of the

divisions, of the services after the war, the U.S. Air Force needs fighter jets. We've talked about the F-80 that flew

a few missions in Korea, but the F-104 Starfighter is the first thing that looks like the future.

Clarence Kelly Johnson, how did he come to the F-104? And what was his style when dealing with the Air Force at the time?

Thanks, Josh. So the pilots in Korea were coming back with reports of Soviet-built planes that were far

superior to what they were flying. They were faster and climbed higher and

faster. And so basically what they did, they told Kelly, they needed speed and they needed climb.

So he designs the second major Scudg Workshop program is the F-104, often called the missile

with a man in it because it had these short stubby little wings.

But it's the first mock aircraft and it's fast as hell.

And it does solve the problem that gives America,

American pilots an air superiority fighter in the jet era.

And again, it proves the skunk works method, which is fast, lean, quiet, you ask about the air force this becomes a key tenet of kelly skunk works philosophy is i need total control like i will

make you the thing that you want but you can't be in my hair i'm not going to go to meetings and

report progress every day i I will stay on budget.

I will deliver it on time and I will give you the thing that you need, but you have to stay

out of my way. Now, this is a subplot, the skunk works itself and Kelly's style of management,

which no longer exists anywhere, to my knowledge. He was the boss, but he wasn't a talkie boss, nor was he a boss

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