`SKUNK WORKS' SITE WON'T BE PRESERVED.

Byline: Eric Wahlgren Daily News Staff Writer

Two key government agencies have ruled that buildings at the former super-secret ``Skunk Works'' aircraft plant near the Burbank Airport are in too poor shape to warrant historic preservation.

Made by the Federal Aviation Administration and seconded by the California State Historic Preservation Office, the ruling appears to clear the way for the airport to demolish these defense industry relics.

Aviation buffs want to save what remains of the former Lockheed Martin Corp. complex, arguing that the fabled warplanes that were built there give the structures historic significance.

But an FAA spokesman said the agency and the state office found that the buildings - mainly old hangars and shells of office buildings on 130 acres - were not eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.

The state office ``agreed with our determination that the Skunk Works did not meet the criteria for the National Register as a historic site,'' said Tim Pile, an FAA spokesman in Seattle.

The Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority, which has recently acquired the Skunk Works property, plans to raze the buildings as part of an estimated $250 million air terminal expansion plan.

Sean McCarthy, an Airport Authority spokesman, said the airport could begin the final phase of demolition in the next two weeks after crews finish removing asbestos from the structures.

But preservationist R.C. ``Chappy'' Czapiewski, a North Hollywood resident, has appealed the ruling by the two government agencies in the hope of stopping the now almost certain demolition of the buildings.

Czapiewski, who wants a mammoth hangar called 309/310 turned into a museum, says Skunk Works produced some of America's most famous warbirds, including the U-2 spy plane and the SR-71 Blackbird, still the world's fastest jet.

``It is important for people to know that in Burbank, in nondescript buildings, was a super-secret plant that gave America the edge in the Cold War and other wars,'' said the Korean War veteran and former teacher.

Druscilla Null, a spokeswoman for the Washington, D.C.-based National Advisory Council on Historic Places, said Czapiewski's appeal is being forwarded to the National Register of Historic Places.

But she said the FAA, which plans to fund a large portion of the air terminal expansion, and the airport, will not be required to stop demolition.

``The FAA and the Airport Authority do not have to stop work before the appeal proceeds,'' Null said.

Null said the FAA and the state office found the buildings lacked architectural integrity, meaning that they had been changed or damaged in such a way that they had lost any historical significance.