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Back to #419 Kelly Johnson: Skunk Works, with David Senra.

What Is the SR-71 Blackbird?

David Senra says the SR-71 Blackbird is the airplane Kelly Johnson and Skunk Works created during LBJ's presidency. It flies at three times the speed of sound. It was the most advanced aircraft in the world at the time, and it is still the fastest. At 80,000 feet, the team was not only inventing a product. They had to invent the manufacturing methods too. Everything about the aircraft had to be invented.

Senra reads Johnson's list: special fuels, structural materials, manufacturing tools and techniques, hydraulic fluid, fuel tank sealants, paints, plastics, wiring, and connecting plugs, along with the basic aircraft and engine design. During that work Johnson went back to an old axiom, keep it simple, stupid. The more complexity, the more potential for problems.

Grokipedia·David Senra·Kelly Johnson

Transcript

#419 Kelly Johnson: Skunk Works ·

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  1. Why Does Elon Musk Cite the SR-71 Blackbird?David Senra says Elon Musk cites the SR-71 Blackbird when he tells his team that speed is a massive competitive advantage.
  2. How Did a Tiny Skunk Works Team Beat Bigger Groups?David Senra says Kelly Johnson built the world's fastest aircraft with 135 engineers, then sets that against a company with 1,206 people in quality control…
  3. What Are Kelly Johnson's 14 Rules for Skunk Works?David Senra, reading Kelly Johnson's autobiography, says Johnson wrote 14 points as the basic operating rules of Skunk Works.
  4. What Is Lockheed's Skunk Works?David Senra, reading Kelly Johnson, says Skunk Works is a concentration of a few good people solving problems far in advance, and at a fraction of the cost of…
  5. What Did Kelly Johnson Do First at Lockheed?David Senra says Kelly Johnson's first act at Lockheed was to tell the two lead designers that their plane was unstable.
  6. How Fast Did Lockheed Build a Submarine Hunting Plane?David Senra says Kelly Johnson won Lockheed an order for 200 airplanes, the largest aircraft production order placed in the United States up to that time…
  7. What Was the First Skunk Works Shop Like?David Senra, reading Kelly Johnson, says the first Skunk Works shop was built from old wooden boxes and a circus tent.

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