Editing Skunk Works (section)

===1950s to 1990s===
[[File:SR71 factoryfloor SkunkWorks.jpg|thumb|alt=SR-71 at Lockheed Skunk Works|Assembly line of the SR-71 Blackbird at Skunk Works]]

In 1955, the Skunk Works received a contract from the [[CIA]] to build a spyplane known as the [[Lockheed U-2|U-2]] with the intention of flying over the Soviet Union and photographing sites of strategic interest. The U-2 was tested at [[Area 51|Groom Lake]] in the [[Nevada]] desert, and the Flight Test Engineer in charge was [[Joseph F Ware Jr|Joseph F. Ware, Jr]]. The first overflight took place on July 4 [[1956 in aviation|1956]]. The U-2 ceased overflights when [[Francis Gary Powers]] [[U-2 Crisis of 1960|was shot down]] during a mission on May 1, 1960, while over Russia.

The Skunk Works had predicted that the U-2 would have a limited operational life over the Soviet Union. The CIA agreed. In late 1959, Skunk Works received a contract to build five [[A-12 Oxcart|A-12]] aircraft at a cost of $96 million. Building a [[Mach number|Mach]] 3.0+ aircraft out of [[titanium]] posed enormous difficulties, and the first flight did not occur until 1962. (Titanium supply was largely dominated by the Soviet Union, so the CIA used several [[shell corporations]] to acquire source material.) Several years later, the [[United States Air Force|U.S. Air Force]] became interested in the design, and it ordered the [[SR-71 Blackbird]], a two-seater version of the A-12. This aircraft first flew in 1966 and remained in service until 1998.

The [[Lockheed D-21|D-21]] [[Unmanned aerial vehicle|drone]], similar in design to the Blackbird, was built to overfly the [[Lop Nur]] nuclear test facility in [[People’s Republic of China|China]]. This drone was launched from the back of a specially modified A-12, known as M-21, of which there were two built. After a fatal mid-air collision on the fourth launch, the drones were re-built as D-21Bs, and launched with a rocket booster from [[B-52]]s. Four operational missions were conducted over China, but the camera packages were never successfully recovered. Kelly Johnson headed the Skunk Works until 1975. He was succeeded by Ben Rich.

In 1976, the Skunk Works began production on a pair of stealth technology demonstrators for the [[U.S. Air Force]] named ''[[Have Blue]]'' in Building 82 at Burbank. These scaled-down demonstrators, built in only 18 months, were a revolutionary step forward in aviation technology because of their extremely small [[radar cross-section]]. After a series of successful test flights beginning in 1977, the Air force awarded Skunk Works the contract to build the [[F-117]] stealth fighter on November 1, 1978.

During the entirety of the [[Cold War]], the Skunk Works was located in Burbank, California, on the eastern side of [[Bob Hope Airport|Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport]] ({{coord|34.200768|-118.351826|display=inline}}). After 1989, Lockheed reorganized its operations and relocated the Skunk Works to Site 10 at [[Plant 42|U.S. Air Force Plant 42]] in [[Palmdale, California]], where it remains in operation today. Most of the old Skunk Works buildings in Burbank were demolished in the late 1990s to make room for parking lots. One main building still remains at 2777 Ontario Street in Burbank (near San Fernando Road), now used as an office building for digital film post-production and sound mixing. During the late 1990s when designing Pixar's building, [[Edwin Catmull]] and [[Steve Jobs]] visited a Skunkworks Building which influenced Jobs' design.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Catmull |first=Edwin |url=https://archive.org/details/creativityincove0000catm |title=Afterword: The Steve We Knew |publisher=Creativity Inc |year=2014 |isbn=9780812993011}}</ref> In 2009, the Skunk Works was inducted into the [[International Air & Space Hall of Fame]] at the [[San Diego Air & Space Museum]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=These We Honor: The International Aerospace Hall of Fame |publisher=Donning Co. Publishers |year=2006 |isbn=978-1-57864-397-4 |editor-last=Sprekelmeyer |editor-first=Linda}}.</ref>