Skunk Works of Lockheed Martin is one of the most respected organizations in the world. It's truly the birth place of many legendary aircrafts known to mankind.
Skunk Works was a company inside company. It had rules similar to many current startups. They were very agile and flexible. It had all the traits of a billion dollar startup. Small competent team. No B.S. with politics or corporate laws. Strict financial control. And most of all they loved what they were creating.
The corner stone of Skunk works were laid by none other than the great Kelly Johnson. Kelly was a brilliant engineer and skilled leader.
He was so efficient that higher management was always chasing him with position of president in LM. But his real efficiency is with U-2 project.
Usually in every government project around the world, companies run out money. Companies all around the world try very hard to stay in line with budget. Projects especially with aviation takes longer and usually break the budget line. It's through variation and added value, contractors gain the money.
With U-2 top secret project it was different.
U-2's project was handled in such a way that US Air Force got an aircraft that performs beyond their expectations and cost less. With U-2 project, LM returned 1 million dollar back to the government.
That's how efficient Skunk Works was. That's how efficient a real aeronautical engineer is.
Strive to be a better engineer. A better leader.
Cheers.
CK
