It’s the most out-in-the-open secret factory in the United States. Visible from the Sierra Highway in Palmdale are the buildings of Lockheed Martin Corp., one of which has a large logo of a skunk on its side. Officially known as the Advanced Development Programs division, the nickname for this facility is the Skunk Works, and for more than 70 years it has been on the forefront of aircraft design and technology. Inside the 886,000-square-foot plant at 1011 Lockheed Way, a staff of engineers, designers and fabricators are thinking eight or nine steps ahead of what regular aircraft can do. “It is one of the crown jewels of U.S. aerospace,” said Richard L. Aboulafia, an aviation analyst with aerospace research firm Teal Group, in Fairfax, Va. The Skunk Works’ legacy includes some of the most advanced aircraft ever built: the XP-80, a prototype jet fighter during World War II; the U2 high-altitude spy plane; the SR-71 Blackbird, one of the fastest planes ever flown; and the F-117 Nighthawk, the first stealth bomber. While much of the work there remains classified, current programs include hypersonic aircraft; a compact fusion reactor; and unmanned aircraft, or drones, according to the Skunk Works website. And the facility could expand if Lockheed and partner Boeing Co. of Chicago get a pending contract for a new Air Force bomber. The selection of a contractor is expected to be announced within a month. With more than 3,200 employees, the Palmdale facility ranks first on the San Fernando Valley Business Journal’s list of largest manufacturers in the Valley region, as ranked by employment. (See page 11.) With that number of workers and a world-renowned reputation, the Skunk Works – Lockheed Martin trademarked the name – is a key piece of the Antelope Valley’s economy and aerospace industry, which also counts competitors Northrop Grumman Corp. and Boeing. “Any community to have claim to this in their business mix has something they can be proud of,” said Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford. But Ledford and others involved with economic development in the region can be just as much in the dark about what goes on at the Skunk Works as anyone else. Few reporters are allowed inside, and photography and videotaping are prohibited. Skunk Works spokeswoman Heather Kelso refused to make a representative available. “For proprietary reasons or national security reasons they can hold the cards close to the chest,” Aboulafia said. Loren Thompson, co-founder of the Lexington Institute, a nonprofit national security think tank in Arlington, Va., often talks with Skunk Works executives but has never visited the site. Getting the approval would be a tough task, he said. “You don’t just saunter into the Skunk Works,” Thompson said. “It doesn’t work that way.” ‘Unique culture’ The Skunk Works was founded in 1943 by Lockheed engineer Clarence “Kelly” Johnson when the aircraft manufacturer was located in Burbank. The name was a play on a backwoods moonshine still called the “skonk works” from the “L’il Abner” comic strip. What Johnson and his team started – a fast-paced, secretive workshop turning out cutting-edge aircraft technology – continues to this day. “The Skunk Works has a unique research culture that thinks decades into the future, bringing together imagination with technical skills,” Thompson said. The Palmdale operations, which includes the Skunk Works and other work the company does there, are part of the aeronautics division, one of five that make up Lockheed, based in Bethesda, Md. Skunk Works also has facilities in Fort Worth, Texas, and Marietta, Ga. For the second quarter ended June 28, the entire aeronautics division had net revenue of $4.1 billion, a 7 percent increase from the same period a year earlier. The increase was attributed to more sales of the F-35 Lightning II fighter jet. Financial details specifically for the Skunk Works do not appear in Lockheed’s financial reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. While the company derives most of its revenue from government contracts as part of the public Pentagon budget, the company likely also benefits from the “black budget” of top-secret funding that in the fiscal 2015 year amounted to nearly $59 billion, according to documents released by the Defense Department. Lockheed had a presence in Palmdale before the Skunk Works relocated there from Burbank in the early 1990s, bringing with it some 4,000 employees. Around the same time, Lockheed was constructing other buildings on the 500-plus acres it had in the Antelope Valley, including one with laboratories for the production of aircraft parts from composite materials. Ledford, the Palmdale mayor, was himself a Lockheed employee in the early 1970s, first as a production worker and later as a supervisor on the final assembly of the L-1011, the last commercial jet produced by the company. Currently, Lockheed is the fourth-largest employer in the Antelope Valley. Josh Mann, president of the board of directors of the Antelope Valley Board of Trade, a business advocacy group in Lancaster, said that alone makes it a cornerstone of the local economy. “Along with Northrop and Boeing, it really represents the kind of companies that sustain and support the aerospace industry not only within the Antelope Valley but in all of Southern California,” he said. Bomber jobs Lockheed continues to build on the legacy of the Skunk Works. One current project involves alternative energy production through compact fusion. Compact fusion mimics the process of how the sun operates – heating a gas up to separate its ions and electrons. When the ions fuse together, they release a lot of energy. The Skunk Works is working to perform this process in a compact magnetic container small enough to fit on the back of truck yet capable of creating energy to power a city of 100,000 people. While research and design are the prime duties at the Skunk Works, the facility also pushes innovation in the manufacturing process. The Palmdale facility is home to the world’s largest gantry, which is used to create large-scale, complex-shaped structures out of lightweight composite materials with equivalent or greater strength than metal. In addition, the company has embraced 3-D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, a process that reduces waste. These manufacturing processes are likely to play a major role if Lockheed becomes a subcontractor to Boeing on the contract for the Air Force’s new advanced stealth bomber. The contract could be one of the most expensive ever managed by the Pentagon, and the Antelope Valley would stand to gain hundreds of jobs from its production. Published reports have Lockheed adding 700 positions, while if rival Northrop, which also has manufacturing capabilities in Palmdale, wins the bid it would add 1,500. Last summer, the California Legislature passed laws allowing municipalities to offer property tax rebates and corporate income tax credits to large manufacturers creating jobs. The law was passed specifically with Lockheed’s and Northrop’s involvement in the bomber project in mind. Both Palmdale and Los Angeles County have since made those rebates available if the bomber contract brings new work. Ledford said Palmdale representatives lobbied on behalf of the bills to show the city wanted to improve the business climate. “What you are seeing is a region that sees a value (in aerospace) and wants to see that flourish,” added the trade board’s Mann. The bomber program is not the only one that Lockheed has set its sights on. The company is moving forward on a carrier-based drone and a giant airship that could deliver cargo to remote areas. It’s also bidding, in partnership with a South Korean aerospace firm, on a new trainer aircraft for the Air Force. “Those are programs of importance but are small scale compared to the bomber,” analyst Aboulafia said.