I'm John Batchler. I welcome the author, Josh Dean, his new book, The Impossible Factory,

The Remarkable True Story of Kelly Johnson and the Lockhe Corporation, takes us to the Second World

War and the need for a long-range fighter to accompany bomber command as it barrels into the

Pacific or barrels into Europe, something fast and something

that can endure lengthy trips to and fro and give assurance to the bombers.

Josh, a very good evening to you. Thank you very much. This is the story of Lockheed Corporation

and a man named Johnson and the skunk works.

But I want to begin with the P38.

I never asked where it came from and why we had it.

You tell that story very well.

What was the conception, what was the request from the war department, then called the War Department?

And who was Kelly Johnson to meet that request?

Good evening to you. Good evening. Thanks for having me, John. So the P38 was a reaction to a request

from the War Department for an Air Superiority Fighter. Basically, the Germans at that time had better planes were causing real problems for the

bomber fleets that had to fly over, well, first Europe and then Japan also. And they put out a call

presumably to all the companies making airplanes at that time, but there was one company in Burbank

known as Lockheed, relatively unknown at that time, but had just helped save the British war

effort with the Hudson bomber, which the British had come to Lockheed a few years prior and

said, these German U-boats are a real problem. Do you have anything in the air that could help

us? And Lockheed sent a young engineer

named Clarence Kelly Johnson to help solve that problem. And when this one arises, Kelly is put on

the job again. And he develops this brilliant, I mean, honestly, at the time, iconoclastic design.

...