1995 merger
The letterhead this page is named for.
Darker cells mean a higher score for this topic on that metric.
Scale44
Intensity25
Duration68
Tech shift70
Political impact55
Cultural memory38
LessMore
Last reviewed Sources & creditsMedia creditsMethodology
Quick answers
Are the scores a ranking of nations or armies?
No. Scores are browsing aids inside an era-bounded atlas — not live league tables of countries.
What is Skunk Works?
Lockheed's advanced-development organisation, associated with Kelly Johnson and later Ben Rich, and with types such as the U-2 and SR-71. A historical shop, not a visitor workshop.
What did Martin bring?
Bomber heritage and, as Martin Marietta, Titan missiles and space contracting -- the other half of the hyphen.
Why does Korea appear here?
Because ROK purchases of Lockheed types (notably F-16 and F-35) are a dated alliance-industrial story. See also the ROK military page.
Is the F-35 "history"?
Its procurement and politics are already a thick public file. Performance claims stay out of this encyclopedia except as disputed hearing objects.
Who is Kelly Johnson?
The engineer-manager name of mid-century Skunk Works. Memoir fame exceeds any single airframe.
U-2 overflight politics, F-104 export scandals, F-35 concurrency hearings -- dated public campaigns of a firm.
Not flight-test how-to.
Principles
U-2, 1955
Reconnaissance as politics.
F-35 hearings
The late public file.
Concurrency
Building while testing -- the F-35 hearing word. Read as a 1995 merger (Lockheed 1926; Glenn L. Martin Company 1912) concept in US plants and Pentagon offices; export customers; Skunk Works as a California myth.
Offset
Industrial participation demanded by import states, including the ROK -- a procurement term. Not a present instruction.
Steps
- Glenn L. Martin Company
1912: The older ancestor.
A dated beat of Lockheed Martin in US plants and Pentagon offices; export customers; Skunk Works as a California myth. Sequence as history, not as a campaign to copy.
- Lockheed incorporation (famous form)
1926: The California ancestor.
A dated beat of Lockheed Martin in US plants and Pentagon offices; export customers; Skunk Works as a California myth. Sequence as history, not as a campaign to copy.
- U-2 first flight
1955: A reconnaissance political object.
A dated beat of Lockheed Martin in US plants and Pentagon offices; export customers; Skunk Works as a California myth. Sequence as history, not as a campaign to copy.
- F-104 / C-130 era
1956-58: A fighter scandal-to-be and a transport that stayed.
A dated beat of Lockheed Martin in US plants and Pentagon offices; export customers; Skunk Works as a California myth. Sequence as history, not as a campaign to copy.
- SR-71 first flight
1964: The poster type.
A dated beat of Lockheed Martin in US plants and Pentagon offices; export customers; Skunk Works as a California myth. Sequence as history, not as a campaign to copy.
- Martin Marietta years
1961-95: Missiles and space on the other letterhead.
A dated beat of Lockheed Martin in US plants and Pentagon offices; export customers; Skunk Works as a California myth. Sequence as history, not as a campaign to copy.
Diagrams
From Glenn L. Martin Company (1912) through Martin Marietta years (1961-95) to Hewson public era (2013-20) in US plants and Pentagon offices; export customers; Skunk Works as a California myth. One sequence, not a staff overlay.
Allan Lockheed (Founder) and Glenn L. Martin (Founder) sit at the centre of most English accounts; Marillyn Hewson and James D. Taiclet correct the usual photograph.
Limits
Source limits
Figures such as "not a war -- a firm; human cost sits in the wars that bought the products" stay in ranges because records are incomplete, political, or still closed. What is Skunk Works? is answered as a band.
No how-to
Lockheed Martin is firm and procurement history. No product guide, no crew drill, no live order book.
Memory bias
English-language fame of Lockheed Martin and local memory in US plants and Pentagon offices; export customers; Skunk Works as a California myth are not the same map. James D. Taiclet is often the correction the first photograph drops.
Hearings are the accessible primary source for the late firm.
Do not treat a shareholder letter as an official history.