The impossible factory : the remarkable true story of Kelly Johnson and the Lockheed Skunk Works, America's innovation machine / Josh Dean.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dean, Josh, Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Johnson, Clarence L., 1910-1990.

Johnson, Clarence L.

Lockheed Advanced Development Company--History.

Lockheed Advanced Development Company.

Aircraft industry--United States--History.

Aircraft industry.

Aeronautical engineers--United States.

Aeronautical engineers.

Genre:

Biographies.

Informational works.

Physical Description:

xv, 478 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm

Other Title:

Kelly Johnson and the Lockheed Skunk Works, America's innovation machine

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Dutton, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, [2026]

Summary:

"The extraordinary true story of Lockheed Martin's "Skunk Works," the radical innovation hub that designed the greatest airplanes of the 20th century. It began with a humble warehouse building in Burbank, California and a charismatic young engineer named Kelly Johnson. In 1938, Johnson, who was then working for the U.S. Army Air Corps, got the idea for a small, agile, disruptive engineering shop--one that could compete with Nazi Germany's then-superior warplanes. By 1943, with the U.S. now in World War II and desperate for new technology, "Advanced Development Projects," more commonly known as the "Skunk Works," was born. During Johnson's 47 years at Lockheed Martin, the Skunk Works developed at least half a dozen planes that would have been the capstone achievement of anyone else's career. There was the XP-80, America's first ever fighter jet, which did indeed help the Allies win World War II. The Constellation, the first passenger plane with a pressurized cabin, revolutionized commercial air travel. The U-2 spy plane could reach an astonishing altitude of 70,000 feet, enabling it could fly dangerous covert missions in Soviet airspace during the height of the Cold War. And Kelly was the visionary behind the SR-71 Blackbird, one of the most unusual, and iconic, planes ever designed. But the planes were only part of Johnson's legacy. There was also his management style, which would come to shape organizations for decades to come. Under him, the Skunk Works' structure--flat management, no red tape, extraordinary speed--quickly became the model for nurturing innovation, and eventually would fuel the nimble startups of Silicon Valley. Half a century before Mark Zuckerberg coined the motto "move fast and break things," Kelly Johnson was living that mantra--and at the same time helping the Department of Defense secure the fate of the free world. The Impossible Factory is a page-turning work of history with the soul of a thriller"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

The making of a mastermind

The Skunk Works is born

A very special need

Blackbird

A lion in winter.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 460-465) and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Dean, Josh Impossible factory

ISBN:

9781524745516

1524745510

OCLC:

1534513826

Publisher Number:

90104571785