Since its creation in 1943, the Skunk Works, now part of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics (Palmdale, California), has grown to three facilities: Burbank, California, Fort Worth, Texas, and Palmdale, California. “Historically,” says Gary Ervin, vice president, Advanced Development Programs, “the company’s three aeronautics locations competed against one another because they were separate profit and loss centers. But the changing defense picture”– marked by a decrease in both appropriations and programs– “has forced us to rethink the Skunk Works’ place in the organization.”

The SR-71 Blackbird was developed under the direct supervision of Skunk Works founder Kelly Johnson in response to the vulnerability of his earlier U-2 spy plane. Accepted as a concept in August 1959, the prototype entered the test flight phase in April 1962, and gained operational status in December 1964. Johnson turned out to be right about the U-2. Frances Gary Powers’ U-2 mission ended when he was shot down over the Soviet Union in May 1960.

That resulted in tearing down the walls between the three locations, as well as those that had built up around the Skunk Works itself. (Sound familiar?) And though the three sites still operate, they have been combined into a single “virtual” organization under the “Advanced Development Programs” (ADP) banner. Within ADP there are two sub-groups: Advanced Systems Concepts and Advanced Design Center. Ervin explains, “The Advanced Systems Concepts group designs the next- generation bomber, fighter, airlifter (cargo aircraft or tanker), or unmanned vehicle. The Advanced Design Center is full of creative people who look at what future defense needs might be, design systems that can satisfy those requirements, and present them to the various government agencies.”

The Skunk Works is doing what it has always done (i.e. develop new aircraft concepts for immediate-need and evolving mission situations). It’s just doing it more efficiently.

New capabilities include a Product Improvements and Derivatives (PID) group that gives the Skunk Works responsibility for all improvements to, and derivatives of, existing platforms, and works directly with the group responsible for technology development and integration. “This gives us an entrée into programs, and allows us to apply new technologies to an F-22 fighter program, C-5 cargo plane program, or whatever,” says Ervin. “Conversely, if they have requirements for things like a new capability, they present that challenge to us. It’s our job to help them satisfy those requirements by providing the necessary technologies.”

Sometimes, that technology already existed within the organization, but getting it out into the open was difficult at best because, as Ervin says, “each program created a silo that kept solutions inside the program’s walls.” The answer was the creation of the Cross-Product Integration (CPI) unit within the ADP organization. Its assignment is to understand the needs of each program, ferret-out existing solutions, and bring them out into the open where they can be shared. “CPI is working very, very well,” effuses Ervin. “It has created a ‘library’ of ideas that has allowed us to get problems solved and answers out to the organization much, much more quickly than ever before.” This brings the Skunk Works closer to its original focus of inventing innovative aircraft concepts and sharing its technologies with the rest of the organization, where feasible.

The F-117 Stealth Fighter’s management team within the Skunk Works never exceeded 30 people, despite the challenge inherent in designing, building, and testing two demonstrator aircraft in 18 months. The airplane borrowed technologies from other aircraft ( the avionics unit came from the F-111), but shared little in return. By this time, the Skunk Works was focused exclusively on creating new aircraft concepts, and cut off from the rest of the organization.

The key to making this complex virtual organization work isn’t more time on commercial airliners, says Ervin, it’s communication. “My travel time is up,” he admits, “but it’s not as bad as I thought it would be. Each facility has different capabilities, and folding them into one organization meant creating common procedures, using common tools, and speaking a common language.” Now most work is accomplished via Internet meetings, video teleconferences, e-mail, and other electronic media.

“We use the same set of electronic databases at all three sites,” says Ervin. “And most of the time our suppliers are part of the same database structure. So we send the files back and forth electronically, and the suppliers build the parts and ship them to us without ever having to make prototypes. The concept is the same whether we are dealing with ourselves or our suppliers. Integrated electronic tools are key to opening the lines of communication.”

Those tools, however, aren’t proprietary. “We use CATIA as a design tool, and that capability was developed with Boeing when we worked together on the YF-22 fighter program,” says Ervin. “It made it possible for us to work collaboratively and hurry the process along significantly.” Which begs the question: If Boeing uses the same tools as Lockheed Martin–and has its own Skunk Works in the form of Phantom Works, acquired when Boeing bought McDonnell Douglas–what makes the Skunk Works different from its competition?

“There are two major things,” says Ervin. “First, we look for people with a ‘can-do’ attitude. People who are free thinkers, creative, and don’t let conventional boundaries get in their way. Second,” he adds almost off-handedly, “we don’t have a standard set of management tools for every situation. We tailor and adapt them to the program. A small, ‘black’ [covert] program has very different requirements from a large, commercial program,” he continues. “We tailor what we do to whatever is appropriate to the program we are working on. It never pays to get lost in the process.”

Lockheed Martin says existing aircraft, like this C-130, will benefit from the technology sharing possible since the Skunk Works’ reorganization. Meanwhile, new aircraft – like the X-35 Joint Strike Fighter – will be supported by Skunk Works members in operation. This real-world knowledge will be used to improve future aircraft designs.

How does this fit with the 14 rules established by Skunk Works founder Clarence L. “Kelly” Johnson (see “Kelly Johnson’s 14 Rules”) and used on every program from the P-80 Shooting Star through the F-117 Stealth Fighter? “Very well, actually,” says Ervin. “Like Kelly, we’re firm believers in small focused groups, the need for a program manager with complete control and authority over the program, and empowered individuals who complete a particular task. This maximizes the ability of your team to get the job done as quickly and efficiently as possible, without going completely outside the lines of the organization.”

Yet the constant expansion and contraction must have an effect on staffing, especially those empowered, creative types, right? “The Skunk Works grows and shrinks based on what we’re doing,” Ervin says matter-of-factly. “Between programs we do a lot of R&D, both under contract and internally. So we can move people back into the development side once a program is completed. Or, to take the X-35 Joint Strike Fighter as an example, we send out people who support that program as it moves into production. Then we backfill within the Skunk Works with new people. This helps us stay dynamic and agile on a number of levels, and makes certain this isn’t your typical nine-to-five job.”

By moving some Skunk Works personnel into the main business, Lockheed Martin has been able to give employees a first-hand look at the way that organization runs. According to Ervin, “Our non-Skunk Works employees have been very impressed by how quickly things can be accomplished. Something breaks, we identify it, and the fix is implemented in a very short time. It’s been so successful, that we are looking to roll-out the Advanced Development Program concept beyond the aeronautics division, and into the whole company,” he says. “It’s amazing what you can do when you give people the wherewithal to go create and perform.”