No More Skunks, But SBJ Looks Safe

Asian Aerospace 2000 -- Gulfstream does not expect Lockheed Martin's reorganization and economy drive to threaten the two companies' work on a supersonic business jet (SBJ) according to vice-chairman Bryan Moss. "We have seen nothing that would indicate any change in their attitude," he said here. "There's nothing new or different to report." Gulfstream plans to increase its own spending on the project this year.

Nevertheless, turmoil surrounds the Skunk Works in Palmdale, California, where the revolutionary low-sonic-boom design of the SBJ was conceived. Lockheed Martin's reorganization at the end of January eliminated the Skunk Works as an independent business unit and subordinated it to Dain Hancock's new Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company in Fort Worth. Some 800 jobs are to be eliminated in Palmdale, with the losses concentrated in engineering.

In early February, too, Skunk Works tactical programs VP Paul Martin was ousted. A veteran of the F-117 and F-22 programs, Martin was the most senior 'Skunk' in the company, which had been led since last year by Fort Worth transplant Bob Elrod. At the same time, the local press reported that "Kelly's rules"-the 14 principles laid down by Skunk Works founder Kelly Johnson-had been removed from the Skunk Works' walls, and that the skunk symbol itself was in danger.

Lockheed Martin says organizational details are still being worked out, and it is treading warily around the subject of the symbol. But visitors to the Lockheed Martin pavilion will nose around in vain for even a sniff of the little black-and-white critter that has symbolized the world's most advanced aerospace technology for almost half a century.

By Bill Sweetman