Their earliest creation was the Lockheed
P-38 Lightning but the name Skunk Works didn't come about until shortly after.
Kelly Johnson and his design team are
responsible for:
The
P-38 Lightning, A
twin-engined WWII fighter that first flew on
27 January, 1939. When it finally reached the war it was the first U.S. airplane that could
outclimb and outrun the
Japanese Zero.
The
P-80 Shooting Star, America's first operational jet fighter first flew on
8 January, 1944. Along the way in its service the
United States Air Force was born and all "P" aircraft became "F" aircraft and the Shooting Star became the F-80.
The
L-649 Constellation, built originally to satisfy an airline contract for a 40 passenger
airliner, first flew on
9 January, 1943. The "
Connie" went above and beyond the requirements by seating 81. It is rumored that the requirements of the design were set by
Howard Hughes himself. Hughes was the head of
TWA at the time.
The
L-1049 Super Constellation was an updated model of the L-649 introduced in 1951 with more power, range, and payload.
The
F-94 Starfire. It's hard to believe now that
fighter aircraft used to come in two varieties. Daytime interceptors and
all weather interceptors. Radar sets of the day were heavy, complex, and in many cases difficult to operate requiring a second man. The F-94 Starfire was a two seat all weather interceptor developed from the P-80 Shooting Star. The second crewmember would direct the pilot toward an attack based on his radar indications. It first flew on 16 April 1949.
The
U-2, arguably the most infamous spyplane ever produced. It got that way when
Francis "Gary" Powers was shot down in one over the
Soviet Union on
1 May, 1960. The U-2 first flew completely by accident on 29 July, 1955 during a
high speed taxi test.
The ubiquitous
SR-71 Blackbird. Not enough can be said about the
SR-71 Blackbird. There are several books on the subject. This
remarkable aircraft is arguably the one design that advanced the field of aviation more than any other design since the
Wright Brothers. Virtually everything that went into the SR-71 had to be developed
from the ground up. It first flew on
26 April 1962 as the
YF-12A.
The
F-104 Starfighter, called the "
Missile with a man in it," was designed as a very light very simple aircraft in a time when fighters were gaining weight and complexity. It first flew on
4 March, 1954. The F-104 is the first aircraft to hold both
world speed and world altitude records simultaneously.
The
C-130 Hercules first flew on
23 August 1954. It was designed to meet an
Air Force specification. It has now been in service for almost 50 years as a valuable asset. The
turboprop driven "
Herky Bird" has the distinct advantage of being able to use
unimproved landing areas and very short
runways meaning it can get the cargo much closer to where it's needed than can its jet powered brethren the
C-141,
C-5, and now the
C-17.
This is by all means not a complete listing of the Skunk Works development team's accomplishments. Several other
experimental and operational aircraft came from the
Lockheed Burbank facility (Which, sadly, no longer exists) and the
Lockheed Palmdale Skunk Works complex at
Air Force Plant 42.
Kelly Johnson was,
without a doubt, one of the most talented
aircraft designers in the
world. He retired from Lockheed in 1975 and
passed away on
December 12th 1990