`SKUNK WORKS' PLANT CAUGHT IN NEW BATTLE.

Byline: Eric Wahlgren Daily News Staff Writer

During its heyday, the super-secret ``Skunk Works'' plant rolled out some of America's most fearsome aircraft used to fight the largely bloodless Cold War, including the U-2 spy plane and the F-117 stealth fighter.

But today, what remains of the former Lockheed Martin Corp. plant - mainly crumbling shells of office buildings and hangars on 130 acres - has been thrust into a new battle: the one over expansion of the Burbank Airport.

The Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority, having recently acquired the property and acting on its air terminal expansion plan, wants to finish demolishing these defense industry relics.

But a federal agency believes some of the remaining structures might qualify for the National Register of Historic Places, heartening local aviation enthusiasts who want them turned into a museum.

``They are the last vestiges of this great history that we have,'' said Ron Dickson, director of the Burbank Aviation Museum. ``We could lose all of the physical evidence of the aviation history in Burbank.''

Airport officials dismiss claims that the buildings have historical value, saying that they doubt the Washington, D.C.-based National Advisory Council on Historic Preservation will find them eligible for the National Register.

For starters, airport officials say Lockheed knocked down most of the buildings on the property before moving out in the early 1990s, leaving only a few worn, gutted structures of no architectural significance.

A philosophy

The significance of the Skunk Works, they add, was never the buildings themselves but a unique management philosophy that allowed employees to work with as little interference as possible to build top planes cheaply and in record time.

``Skunk Works is a concept, not a place,'' said Victor Gill, an airport spokesman. ``There is nothing there to preserve.''

Preservationists and officials with the Federal Aviation Administration, which is expected to fund the majority of the airport's estimated $250 million expansion, are scrambling to determine if the buildings, including a giant hangar where the top-secret planes were produced, are significant.

In a June letter, the advisory council asked the FAA to urge a halt in further demolition until the status of the buildings is reviewed, but Gill said the FAA has not told the airport to hold off.

Gill said the Airport Authority expects to forge ahead with the demolition in the next phase of airport work, scheduled to begin in three weeks. He said the legacy of the Skunk Works would be commemorated with exhibits, displays and possibly actual planes in any new terminal that is constructed.

But attorney Peter Kirsch said he believes the project should be delayed while federal preservationists decide whether the former Skunk Works site is eligible for the National Register. Kirsch is a lawyer for the city of Burbank, which opposes airport expansion.

If airport officials razed buildings just before they were deemed eligible for the National Register, the airport could lose federal funding for the expansion plan, Kirsch said.

``There are many instances in which the federal government has held back funding on historic preservation issues,'' he said.

There also are many instances in which historic preservation issues did not affect federal funding, Kirsch noted, and he conceded that the debate over the historical status probably would not be a ``project stopper.''

Limited power

Even if the buildings qualified for the National Register, officials might allow their destruction after their significance was properly recorded, according to Marjorie Nowick, a specialist for the advisory council.

Nowick said the council, with its 20 presidentially appointed members, could not block federal funding of an airport project.

``We are just here to ensure that historic preservation is considered as part of the planning process,'' said Nowick, who is based in Denver.

The Skunk Works plant was the namesake of a moonshine still in the ``Li'l Abner'' cartoon strip that emitted strange chemical odors, as did the plant's hangars during airplane construction.

Organized in 1943 by Lockheed engineer Kelly Johnson, the Skunk Works, located on what is called the B-6 property, produced some of America's most fabled airplanes under tight deadlines and with an excellent record of cost efficiency for almost five decades.

The Skunk Works developed the SR-71 Blackbird that still holds the record as the swiftest jet plane, flying faster than three times the speed of sound.

First flown in 1955, the U-2 spy plane was top secret until the Russians shot down one piloted by Francis Gary Powers over the Soviet Union in 1960.

``I think we all felt we were doing something that contributed to the security of our country, and we were doing it very efficiently,'' said Bob Klinger, a former Skunk Works flight test engineer who worked on many of the most famous planes.

Despite his fond recollections of his career, Klinger said he has little attachment to the remaining buildings and does not care if they are demolished.

``I kind of chuckled over the uproar,'' Klinger, 76, said. ``I have no sentimental attachment to them.''

Anthony LeVier, one of the Skunk Works' top test pilots and in 1955 the first man to fly the U-2, said he feels much as Klinger does.

``I kind of thought it would be nice to have a museum, but the Skunk Works is pretty much gone now,'' said LeVier, 85. ``I don't care one way or another.''

But LeVier cherishes memories of his storied career in which he flew planes built at the plant. It was a career so secret he had to use aliases while traveling and refrain from talking about projects even with his wife.

``I'll never forget flying the U-2,'' LeVier said. ``It would climb like a homesick angel, which is what it was supposed to do.''

But preservationists such as R.C. ``Chappy'' Czapiewski, a North Hollywood resident, argue that the Skunk Works should be preserved as a museum because American tax dollars helped pay for the legendary planes that were built there.

The 68-year-old Korean War veteran and former teacher has been lobbying airport officials and federal agencies for years to try to stop the demolition.

Many preservationists credit Czapiewski with getting the federal historic preservation agency to step into the fray after his blizzard of phone calls and letters.

Role spotlighted

``The Skunk Works deserve to be preserved in such a way that the people who worked in there can be honored and the people who flew the planes can be honored,'' said Czapiewski, crediting Skunk Works planes with helping the United States win the Cold War.

``The work that was done there saved the world for democracy,'' Czapiewski said.

Along with one or two other structures, Czapiewski has singled out building 309/310, a gargantuan hangar near the Burbank Airport's runway, as a top candidate for preservation among the 10 remaining buildings.

Lockheed workers created or built many of the famous planes in this five-story behemoth, including the U-2 and the stealth fighter.

Although buildings eligible for the National Register often have a unique architecture or other distinguishing features, structures can qualify if they were the site of historical events, said Druscilla Null, a specialist with the advisory council in Washington.

``The building of these planes could lead these buildings to be recognized as places where historical events occurred,'' Null said.

Adding bitterness to the local dispute, some aviation enthusiasts claim that airport officials knew the Skunk Works buildings had not been evaluated for historical significance but said they had been to clear the way for demolition.

Gill maintains that the California State Historic Preservation Office concluded in 1991, after a review, that there were Bno eligible buildings on the property.

But an official with the preservation office said the Skunk Works was not included in the evaluation. Other buildings in the study on Lockheed's property were not found significant.

Back then, Lockheed still had control of the property and the Skunk Works was still cloaked in secrecy, making a review of the plant impossible, said Les Copeland, president of the Burbank Aviation Museum.

``There is no record of the Skunk Works ever being evaluated for National Register of Historic Preservation eligibility,'' said Steve Grantham, of the state office.

Lockheed, which turned the land over to the airport in June after a court order, has maintained that the company does not believe the buildings themselves are historically significant.

``We are still very mindful of the work that was done on the site and the history that was made in the buildings,'' said Maureen Curow, a Lockheed spokeswoman based in Westlake Village. ``But the building site did not meet the specifications to receive historic designation.''

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MAP: Lockheed b-6 plant