Upon introduction, the F-104 was used in large quantities, to supplement the North American F-100 in USAF service. At one point in time, the F-104 was operated by 15 different militaries. Beyond being a brilliant aerospace engineer and larger-than-life character, he was able to successfully navigate the pitfalls of the Pentagons crushing bureaucracy and the military brasss need to meddle in every good design. It was a throwback to a time when airplanes were created by small teams who all broke for lunch together. However, he didnt remain as a tool designer for long. The knowledge I have of these technologies came from the craft that were captured here. The ADP offices stank of plastic- due to the nearby plastic factory. Created by Ben Rich and Clarence "Kelly" Johnson, Skunk Works takes its name from the . Robertson hated having anyone look over his shoulder at his drawing and reacted by grabbing a culprits tie and cutting it off with scissors. Before Rich died of cancer, Andrews took my questions to him. 13. Amazon.com: kelly johnson skunk works We develop laser weapon systems, radio frequency and other directed energy technologies for air, ground and sea platforms to provide an affordable countermeasure alternative. More than my share of it all. There was no question that there were beings from outside the planet. Honest to God, there will never be another like him., We became the most successful advanced projects company in the world by hiring talented people, paying them top dollar, and motivating them into believing that they could produce a Mach 3 airplane like the Blackbird a generation or two ahead of anybody else. The picture was so clear you could see that guy reading a newspaper., I said, 'General, I believe in the well-known golden rule. How The de Havilland Dove Became a British Aviation Icon. Only in the last months of his decline did he begin to feel that the international corporate board of directors dealing with the Subject could represent a bigger problem to citizens personal freedoms under the United States Constitution than the presence of off-world visitors themselves.. CLARENCE LEONARD (KELLY) JOHNSON February 27, 1910-December 21, 1990 BY BEN R. RICH B E QUICK, be quiet, be on time. He came up on our frequency and asked us for our Diplomatic Clearance Number. So Kelly approved my idea of painting the airplane black, and by the time our first prototype rolled out the airplane became known as the Blackbird. Learn how we are strengthening the economies, industries and communities of our global partner nations. Skunk Works Projects: The Super Secret Approach To Innovation Business Cards View All Business Cards Compare Cards Corporate Card Programs For Startups For Large Companies Payment Solutions International Payments Employee Spending Vendor Payments Automated Payments View All Payment Solutions Business Class Business Class A few times we announced a bogus flight plan and then sat back and watched the phony complaints pour in. There was hell to pay., Another weird thing was that after a flight the windshields often were pitted with tiny black dots, like burn specks. There must be mutual trust between the military project organization and the contractor, the very close cooperation and liaison on a day-to-day basis. Any one of his many airplane designs would have honored any individual's career." President Lyndon B. Johnson. 2. We finally figured it out: they were hoisted aloft from the atomic test explosions in Russia and China., The biggest bang, which knocked us four feet backwards, came when we mixed liquid oxygen with an equal amount of liquid hydrogen. In total, Johnson was awarded a whopping 52 awards! Although initially hesitant, the USAF grew to rely on the U-2, eventually becoming an almost indestructible tool. He founded the legendary 'Skunk Works' department for Lockheed that designed under his command innovative and revolutionary aircraft like the U-2, F-104, SR-71 (photo . Author: Shaikh Ashraf. A born engineerI knew I wanted to design airplanes since I was twelve years old, he once saidKelly was offered the position of company president an unprecedented three times, but declined each time to oversee Skunk Works, where he remained a senior advisor even after his formal retirement in 1975. The inspection system as currently used by the Skunk Works, which has been approved by both the Air Force and Navy, meets the intent of existing military requirements and should be used on new projects. His work was instrumental in preventing a Soviet win during the Cold War. Happiness has to do with reason, and only reason earns it. Since his death, Johnson has frequently been called one of the most influential aviators of the 20th century. Ursula K. Le Guin, She looked at him. Skunk Works - Wikipedia As one of Johnson's lieutenants wrote to Tom Peters, "Each person was told why he had been chosen: He was the best one to be had. We decided to cross France without clearance instead of going the roundabout way. The contractor must be delegated the authority to test their final product in flight. Help me out here. That way we reduced rework and scrap waste. The project was highly secret, very high priority, and time was of the essence., Inside the Skunk Works, we were a small, intensely cohesive group consisting of about fifty veteran engineers and designers and a hundred or so expert machinists and shop workers., I enjoyed the goodwill of my colleagues because most of us had worked together intimately under tremendous pressures for more than a quarter century. Socrates The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. There is also the Secrecy aspect. Father Of Stealth Ben Rich Found Success In The 'Hopeless Diamond' Siddiq Saunderson Moved to L.A. and Immediately Bought a Prius, Millennials and Zillennials Can't Get Enough of Manual Transmissions, Dollar Flight Club Premium Plus (Lifetime Subscription), Tesla Investor Day 2023 Was Pretty Great if You Ignored Elon. During the Apollo landing, Neil Armstrong says, Theyre here.They are right over there and looking at the size of those ships., it is obvious they dont like us being here. 2. From the development of the U-2 to the Stealth fighter, Skunk Works is the true story of America's most secret and successful aerospace operation. 7. UFO accounts are journalists' stuff of dreams. But some complaints were for real. Alya Kulikova is a Russian avgeek who loves nothing more than learning about new aircraft, and sharing that with her fellow avgeeks! We encouraged our people to work imaginatively, to improvise and try unconventional approaches to problem solving, and then got out of their way. In an e-mail, dated July 29, 1999, apparently addressed to Lindemann, McDonald referenced an excerpt of a discussion with Harold Puthoff, founder of the highly classified U.S. remote viewing program. Below stretched hundreds of miles of California coastline in the early morning light. , Skunk Works, , . That's not a bad thing, its just going to take a while before we refocus. Bullshit. Following the success of the P-38, Lockheed tasked Kelly Johnson with working on a family of airliners that could replace the earlier Lockheed Model 18 Lodestars. With many Lockheed aircraft entering service with the US military, engineers used it with test pilots, who then taught US Navy pilots. 2. Many of these sub-divisions are working on Lockheed Martins next generation fighters! Johnson borrowed the idea of the design from the German Focke-Wulf Fw 189as well as the Northrop P-61. The specifications applying to the hardware, including rationale for each point, must be agreed upon well in advance of contracting. Whilst at University, Johnson helped out on the wind tunnel testing of the Lockheed Model 10 Electra, Lockheeds answer to the Boeing 247. Don Phillips, These UFOs were huge and they would just come to a stop and do a 60 degree, 45 degree, 10 degree turn, and then immediately reverse this action. The mesure of an intelligent person is the ability to change his mind." Clarence L. Johnson, Kelly: More Than My Share of It All 2 likes Like There are 2 types of UFOs the ones we build and ones they build. One of the guys boomed Kellys ranch in Santa Barbara as a joke that backfired because he knocked out Kellys picture window. In 1956, he became Vice President of the Research and Development division, where he was the lead designer on several aircraft. Our security people nabbed him just outside the plant and had him signing national security secrecy forms until he pleaded writers cramp., freedom to take risksand faildefine the heart of a Skunk Works operation., He told me later that he was surprised to learn that with flat surfaces the amount of radar energy returning to the sender is independent of the targets size. Although slight variations exist, they go something like this: 1. The provisions of the Secrecy agreements these people must operate under may be so onerous that using the cancer cure device may have posed a threat to the secret getting out. $21.95 $ 21. Even our drawings bore the logo C & Jthe word Lockheed never appeared. Top Kelly Johnson Skunk Works Quotes It would be nice to redefine ourselves - at the moment we are drowning in diversity. Lord of the Skunk Works | Air & Space Forces Magazine Air Force New Fighter Jet: Who Built the Secret Plane? - Popular Mechanics . "Come on, Papa. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Arming U-2s wasnt an option- this would decrease the service ceiling of the U-2 and make it easier for Soviet radars to detect. As such, the CIA contracted Lockheed to develop a new, undetectable spy plane. Kelly Johnson's Skunk Works responded with a design that they claimed could fly as high as 73,000 feet with a range of 1,600 miles, based on the Lockheed XF-104 Starfighter, a slender and supersonic intercept fighter. Johnson officially retired from Lockheed in 1975, where he was succeeded by his close friend, Ben Rich. . Here, Goldwater accused Lyndon Johnson of allowing the Soviets to out compete the US. There must be a minimum number of reports required, but important work must be recorded thoroughly. Ben Rich Lockheed Skunk Works CEO had admitted in his Deathbed Confession that Extraterrestrial UFO visitors are real and the U.S. Military travel among stars. Search for jobs related to kelly johnson skunk works quotes or hire on the world's largest freelancing marketplace with 19m+ jobs. I can tell you personally that it has already started. Access by outsiders to the project and its personnel must be strictly controlled by appropriate security measures. By that, his employees should never delay a contract, or overrun on costs, and/or never deliver a product that is subpar. There must be a monthly cost review covering not only what has been spent and committed but also projected costs to the conclusion of the program. Another of our pilots got in engine trouble over Utah and flamed out. Anything you can imagine, we already know how to do., 3 : We now have the technology to take ET home. By applying the most commonsense methods to develop new technologies, we saved tremendous amounts of time and money, while operating in an atmosphere of trust and cooperation both with our government customers and between our white-collar and blue-collar employees. CHECK OUT OUR EDITOR'S LIST OF MUST READ ARTICLES. Today's Skunk Works employs 3,700 employees at facilities in Palmdale, California, Marietta, Georgia, and Fort Worth, Texas. His work thrust the aviation industry several decades into the future, going from traveling only a couple of hundred miles per hour to several times the speed of sound! 1. I just gave it to him. What he had given him was the bird with his middle finger. At the highest levels, the Navy brass was equally unenthusiastic about the small number of stealth ships they would need to defend carrier task forces. In 1939, TWA, at the behest of Howard Hughes, commissioned Lockheed to build an airliner that was faster than anything on the market. The Skunk Works manager must be delegated near complete control of his program in all aspects. Strong but small project offices must be provided both by the military and industry. Many of the principles that Johnson implemented have since become a standard in the industry, and for Lockheed Martin in particular. The article was written by Tom Keller, an aerospace engineer who has worked as a computer systems analyst for NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Lisa Norato, I certainly wasn't happy. This aircraft could fly at 80,000ft (24,000m), far out of the reach of Soviet radars and interceptors of the time. The F-104 was first introduced in 1958, and served until 2008, one of the longest of any aircraft! Kelly Johnson In Skunk Works Studio Cliffano I am a true believer. 9. Rudolf Steiner, One person is always too many around me. Lockheed tasked Johnson with creating the perfect fighter-bomber that would decimate the German and Japanese forces. Kelly Johnson's 14 Rules and Practices | Lockheed Martin That's what a Congressman or a Senator is for to see that too much money don't accumulate in the national Treasury. One of these designs won him a prize of several hundred dollars. Many of the systems Johnson pioneered on the Constellation were refined on the L-1011. That. The local postmaster got curious about all the crates and boxes piling up in his bins and looked up C & J in the phone book and, of course, found nothing. Strong but small project offices must be provided both by the military and industry. Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years of Lockheed Are these ET people hostile? He called the Hopeless Diamond Richs Folly. Some said that Eds bark was worse than his bite, but those were guys who didnt know him., That primitive Skunk Works operation set the standards for what followed. Take A Look At This Documentary About The Skunk Work's History And The Taking action to help you protect what matters most. Harvey Fierstein There's biology in everything, even when you're feeling spiritual. Use a small number of good people (10% to 25% compared to the so-called normal systems). His father, ran a construction company and his mother was a homemaker. But neither Lockheed nor the government had any resources to spare because of the total war effort going on. No reports longer than 20 pages or meetings with more than 15 people. Johnson resigned from the corporate board of directors in 1980, but continued on as a senior advisor until his death. Thanks to the fame and fortune he has earned from his work. We made it almost across, when I looked out the left window and saw a French Mirage III sitting ten feet off my left wing. Second, we have to devise a new propulsion technology. His statements helped to give credence to reports that the U.S. military has been flying vehicles that mimic alien craft. In the later years, many of these aircraft were to do with the concept of stealth. Why did Ben Rich die of cancer if they had a device that could cure it? And then, in August 1962, they hit pay dirt and came up with the pictures that showed the Russians were planting ballistic missiles right next door, SS-4s and SS-5s. This resulted in Irv Culver, answering the internal phone lines as Skonk Works in reference to a comic strip in the local newspaper. One of the main specifications for the aircraft was its height. Kelly: More Than My Share of It All: Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson He lived by the motto Be quick, be quiet, be on time. So, while in London to finalize the sale of the new Hudson bomber, the British Air Ministry requested numerous design changes, and Johnson took on the challenge over three nearly sleepless days. The game changing F-117, which quickly gave the U.S. air superiority in the Gulf War, wouldn't have been possible without Ben Rich, the second director of Lockheed's secretive Skunk Works. Legendary Skunk Works Founder Kelly Johnson's Rules Of - Jalopnik The Most Important Skunk Works Rules For Your Success Due to the P-38s incredible speed and maneuverability, one of these P-38s shot down the aircraft carrying Isoroku Yamamoto, killing him. Lockheed prevailed. See the complete letter in May, 2010 MUFON UFO Journal from John Andrews and the hand written reply from Dr. Ben Rich. Kelly Johnson is known for a lot of things. Shortly after being hired by Lockheed six years earlier, Johnson had walked into his new bosss office, pointed to the companys promising new aircraft, the Electra, revealed a critical instability and then proceeded to correct the errors to the companys amazement. Dec. 22, 1990 12 AM PT. That includes both domestic and international flights. While Lockheed was working on the XP-80 project, access to, and even knowledge of, the design facility was rigidly controlled. He is an AIAA Fellow and recipient of the AIAA Aircraft Design Award, the SAE Clarence L. Kelly Johnson Aerospace Vehicle Design and Development Award, The Engineers Council Clarence L. Kelly Johnson Skunk Works Award, and the Lockheed Martin Aero Star Award. Then he delivered the immortalConstellation, which revolutionized commercial aviation. In the summer of 1938, a twenty-eight-year-old farm boy from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan found himself holed up in a London hotel room. The Skunk Works manager must be delegated practically complete control of his program in all aspects. And, yes, we really did put it to work. He was the lead designer on several of Lockheeds greatest aircraft in the Cold War, as well as being the first leader of Lockheeds infamous Skunk Works division. Skunk Works: 14 rules to live and die by | Reda Sadki We made every shop worker who designed or handled a part responsible for quality control. While in Lockheed's case the reason was the national security nature of the projects, in . He was one of seven children, as well as the child of an immigrant, finances were naturally quite tight. Here, he managed to convince him that the Model 10 was unstable, with Johnson leading the tails redesign. ""Well, I don't think any of the boyos have figured it out, but all of the coven knows. 1. During the 1964 Presidential Election, Republican Barry Goldwater and Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson were having a televised debate. I don't have time to complain. That may be our most enduring legacy as well as our source of lasting pride., When Congress approved the decision to retire the SR-71, the Smithsonian Institution requested that a Blackbird be delivered for eventual display in the Air and Space Museum in Washington and that we set a new transcontinental speed record delivering it from California to Dulles.