Posted on 02/23/2015 4:09:45 PM PST by ckilmer
So yes, I can see why Lockheed is opening up in order to try to sell the cool factor to the next generation of scientists and engineers.
Here’s why Lockheed is pulling the curtain back on Skunk Works
Obama is planning to sell them to China ?
They want $900,000 for that house?
LOL!
Is the second picture down their new facility?
Single car garage???
I just love the name Skunk Works !!!
BTW, skunk is a great word to use when playing hang man.
For the same reason we would let ISIS know when we withdraw from Iraq or when an attack starts? You know, you “sink a ship” or two with loose lips and then you give the world some BS excuse as a cover story for the REAL evil being perpetrated.
Now they have to sell these overpriced losers.
skunk works ping
Kelly Johnson is spinning in his grave. The Skunk Works is just a name and memory these days.
The F-35 must be a “Skunk” Works project because it stinks to high heaven.
I doubt that today’s Lockheed would hire Kelly Johnson or any of the Skunk Works engineers. They’d never get past the mega coporate H.R. dept.
The real story of how he assembled that world class unit must be a helluva story. Somehow I don’t think the classified ads entered the picture.
Nor job fairs.
Not only were the designs amazing but the speed of delivering working prototypes and inventing the necessary
exotic tooling... And no modern computers.
A vanished breed.
Jill R. Aitoro,
Senior Staff Reporter- Washington Business Journal...
Guilty!
We now return you to your regularly scheduled article.
This is the third interesting story I’ve seen out of Lockheed’s skunkworks in the last year.
The first was the development of a desalination membrane they’ve trademarked perforene. This will collapse the need for energy for desalination—which represents roughly 1/3 of the costs of desalination. The membrane needs more work. So they need more smart young engineers to do the job.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/2350985-lockheed-martins-newest-innovation-isnt-what-you-expect
http://www.lockheedmartin.com/content/dam/lockheed/data/ms2/documents/Perforene-datasheet.pdf
The second big announcement from the skunkworks was that the skunkworks was working on a nuclear fusion device that they hope to have prototyped in 5 years. That’s going to need more young guns to do the grunt work.
http://aviationweek.com/technology/skunk-works-reveals-compact-fusion-reactor-details
http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/products/compact-fusion.html
The big technological revolutions that will make the 21st century successful—and push vast treasures to their developers — involve desalination cheap enough for agriculture and energy at least 1/2-1/4 the cost of current cheapest coal.
Lockheed is aiming right. Whether they hit the mark remains to be seen.
My son is 15 and taking Honors Geometry as a freshman in high school. That’s a junior level course. He loves math and is taking an engineering path in his course selection. His goal right now is to attend CalTech or some other highly regarded engineering school. Unlike most youngsters today, he dreams of aerospace or biomedical engineering. The other day I told him all about the Skunk Works and he found it fascinating. He thought it would be cool as hell to work there. I hope he can keep the grades together for 7 more years until he can graduate from one of those engineering schools...
A lot of stuff got done using slide rules.
IMHO, do engineering but also learn business and accounting and finance. It will be relatively very easy - best way to avoid being a genius making other people with half your ability rich in exchange for peanuts.
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