Show notes
U-2 OVER CUBA
Kelly Johnson and the Skunk Works
Josh Dean, author of The Impossible Factory: The Remarkable True Story of Kelly Johnson and the Lockheed Corporation, Part One: Dean chronicles Clarence “Kelly” Johnson’s rise from an impoverished childhood in Michiganto becoming a legendary aeronautical engineer. Dean details Johnson’s early achievements, including saving the Lockheed Electra and designing WWII’s iconic P-38 Lightning fighter. The segment highlights the 1943 founding of Lockheed’s secret “Skunk Works” under a circus tent in Burbank, producing the P-80 jet fighter in just 143 days. Johnson’s development of the F-104 Starfighter and the U-2 high-altitude spy plane for the CIA is also detailed. (1)
Kelly Johnson and the Skunk Works
Josh Dean, author of The Impossible Factory: The Remarkable True Story of Kelly Johnson and the Lockheed Corporation, Part One: Dean chronicles Clarence “Kelly” Johnson’s rise from an impoverished childhood in Michiganto becoming a legendary aeronautical engineer. Dean details Johnson’s early achievements, including saving the Lockheed Electra and designing WWII’s iconic P-38 Lightning fighter. The segment highlights the 1943 founding of Lockheed’s secret “Skunk Works” under a circus tent in Burbank, producing the P-80 jet fighter in just 143 days. Johnson’s development of the F-104 Starfighter and the U-2 high-altitude spy plane for the CIA is also detailed. (1)
