Thanks for the interesting refresher on the Skunk Works. I really admire that model, and I've tried--generally without success--to get big flabby corporations to adopt it for the really cool projects. Basically I keep trying to escape the clutches of stifling corporate bureaucracy by trying to build my own Skunk Works.
My comments worrying about the "key man" problem were an idle fancy, and a moment's thought would have led me to your reassuring view. The very things that make people like Burt Rutan a treasure motivate other people to flock to him and learn from him. He's passing on his legacy through his acolytes.
One of these days, when the Zone gets a search facility, you should gather all these educational posts together and see if they don't form a book. They probably run to the hundreds of posts, just about book size. They needn't form a connected narrative or build a structure toward a conclusion. Just a series of short monographs on aerospace subjects would be interesting.
Space/Science » in reply to What happened at Lockheed's Skunk Works after Kelly Johnson retired?
re: What happened at Lockheed's Skunk Works after Kelly Johnson retired?
The whole thread (41 posts)
- Probable delay in next shuttle launch
- Strike One...
- NASA maybe screwed
- THIS will be the Shuttle's last hurray!
- Be careful what you wish for
- Those guys have already lost the battle
- This stuff is hard to do
- Plus, people forget how long it took to develop Apollo
- Waste Anything but Time
- There was about a 5 year percolation period before Kennedy's speech
- Plus, people forget how long it took to develop Apollo
- This stuff is hard to do
- Those guys have already lost the battle
- Be careful what you wish for
- No shuttle flights until foam loss is understood
- re: Probable delay in next shuttle launch
- Strike One...