Pourquoi non, ma petite chou-fleur?
-ccm
Posted on 08/11/2003 8:40:05 PM PDT by BenLurkin
PALMDALE - Travelers hurrying down Sierra Highway may have noticed the return of a familiar and friendly presence - the mischievous skunk of Lockheed Martin's famed black project workshop, the Skunk Works.
He bears a nodding resemblance to the Warner Bros. cartoon character, Pepe LePew, and for decades he couldn't even come out in public.
It would be a national security breach to identify yourself as an employee of the Skunk Works.
With the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. officially observing the 60th anniversary of the famed hot project shop inaugurated by Clarence "Kelly" Johnson, the skunk emblem is back up on Lockheed's big hangar at Site 10 at Air Force Plant 42.
The skunk had come down following some corporate infighting during the company's reorganization a few years ago. The dust settled with the Advanced Development Projects, informally known as the Skunk Works, re-integrated into a formal corporate structure of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics.
The term "Skunk Works" is not one Johnson chose or particularly liked. It derived from chemical odors emitting from the Burbank aircraft factories of Lockheed and an engineer who picked up the phone and answered, "Skonk Works," referring to the moonshine still in the late Al Capp's cartoon strip, "L'il Abner." The name stuck and finally was trademarked as a company brand.
Meanwhile, the Works turned out a succession of cutting-edge aircraft that became the legendary shop's legacy. The F-104 Starfighter, the U-2 high-flying spy plane, the SR-71 triple-mach Blackbird and the F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter.
The signature Skunk Works engineer from the Kelly days might be the guy with the pocket protectors, heavy glasses, wide tie and white, short-sleeved shirt. Heavy on the starch. But 60 years in the top secret business is still 60 years, and the advance into the 21st century marks the arrival of a new generation. Softer fabrics. Earth tones. Dockers.
The new kids are mindful of the company's storied history as the birthplace of the U-2, the Blackbird and the F-117 stealth fighter. At the same time, they are bringing new ideas into a place that has always prided itself on being a factory for new ideas.
"These young people are great," said Rick Baker, the site manager for Advanced Development Projects. "They are bringing so much to this organization with their vitality and their energy."
To visit some of the recent arrivals within the fabled organization is a matter of getting gate clearance, then venturing deep into hallways that are bare except for photographs of the company's pioneering aircraft. The public communications suite of the Skunk Works is secured with a safe door, the kind you find in a bank. Inside the room, the Skunk Works' "new kids" waited, prepared to step out from behind the veil of secrecy for an hour or so before darting right back to the plausible-denial world of advanced projects.
Alex Valle, a 27-year-old UCLA grad, is like so many who found their way to the Skunk Works.
"I just knew that I always loved airplanes," he said. "In school, you always heard that this was a cutting-edge place that was advancing technology. It had that mystique."
So, on joining Lockheed Martin in Fort Worth, Texas, Valle knew he wanted to get to the Skunk Works, and after a time in Texas he did. He has worked at the ADP site for about a year and is glad he made the trip.
"Some people there told me the mystique is gone. Its best days are behind it."
Valle found otherwise.
"I think we are doing some pretty amazing work."
Another of the recent arrivals at Skunk Works is 25-year-old Jessica Sloan, strong in math, science and physics. Athletic, a gymnast and anything but a nerd.
"There's a misconception that math, science and physics … that it's not creative," she said. "I beg to differ. It is all about creativity and applying it is going to be creative."
Sloan didn't know she would be working within the Skunk Works when she was interviewed by Lockheed Martin. When that turned out to be the job, she was delighted.
"My father was an Air Force officer, a pilot, a jet jockey," she said. "There came the time when he asked me, 'So, what did you do today?' and I answered, 'I can't talk about it.' He was so jealous."
Without making a big deal out of it, Valle and Sloan are kind of "anti-nerds." No pocket protectors. Kind of warm and friendly people, and happy at their cool jobs. They realize that just by showing up for work, they are assuming a mantle with traditions, and that the ranks of the Skunk Works are filled with engineers and designers who have decades of experience.
"It's nice," Sloan said. "It seems as if they listen to us, take our views into account."
"People in our group (with more experience) are really willing to share," Valle echoed.
So, pocket protectors and white shirts find a meeting place with Docker slacks and earth-tone shirts.
Still, the Skunk Works traditions and work rules prevail.
"They advise us not to talk about who we work for or what we do," Valle said. "There is 'need to know,' and information is compartmentalized."
And that is another Skunk Works tradition. Along with locks on office doors, there is scant information shared among employees about who is doing what in which office, unless there is a "need to know."
Sounds like a lot of laughs, right? Sloan and Valle attest that even though they walk down bland corridors, past a succession of locked doors, there is plenty about the Skunk Works that is fun.
The pair belong to a group called "LMents," drawn from the company initials, and the enterprising nature of these employees so new to the outfit.
The LMents' recent hires share the concerns of so many younger and single professionals arriving with fun-but-serious work to do in the Antelope Valley. Together, they enjoy social nights out, mixers and trips to the beach and sports, and they all lament a paucity of clubs and "the lack of a scene" for younger, single professionals.
By sharing those experiences, they are able to blend work and a social life, Sloan and Valle said.
For their "big boss," Frank Cappuccio, the vice president who inherited the mantle of Kelly and Skunk Works legends like Ben Rich, the mission, whether it is pursued by younger or more seasoned hires, remains the same.
Cappuccio recently said to Lockheed Martin writer Ellen Bendell that the ADP shop remains committed to its role as a "national asset," working in the forefront of aeronautical technology and products.
"Superior products through innovation," he said in the 60th anniversary story for Star, the company publication.
That innovation, in years ahead, increasingly will fall into the area of developing strategic information and networking systems, Lockheed Martin spokeswoman Dianne Knippel said.
"The sky's the limit," she said.
The sky has always been the heading and destination for Skunk Works projects, whether they are U-2 surveillance planes or satellite-coordinated information systems. Such projects offer technology challenges for new hires like Valle and Sloan, and for the other ADP employees moving stealthily along the corridors.
"If over the next 20 years it turns out that our country has defended itself well, I am going to feel as if I contributed to that," Valle said.
Pourquoi non, ma petite chou-fleur?
-ccm
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