Lockheed 'Skunk Works' move to Palmdale reslated to early '94.

Lockheed Corp. has pushed back the closing of its "Skunk Works" research facility in Burbank to the first quarter of 1994.

Company spokesman James Ragsdale said by early 1994 all 4,600 Skunk Works employees will have been transferred to Palmdale. Originally, the move was to have been completed sometime in mid- to late-1993.

Ragsdale declined to call the later date a delay and said it was due mainly to setbacks in the construction schedule at Palmdale.

"It's just a matter of getting the facilities built. When they're done, we'll move in and we just signed a contract for some of the work," said Ragsdale.

Lockheed already has several buildings at Palmdale but is constructing seven more at what is called the Plant 10 site, a 670-acre parcel of land in Palmdale in northern Lost Angeles County.

About 2,000 of the 4,600 Skunk Works employees have already been moved to Palmdale, a process that began in 1989 when Lockheed announced it would close down its Burbank operations.

In addition to phasing out the Skunk Works, a research facility, Lockheed announced in 1989 that it would close down its manufacturing facilities in Burbank and transfer the work to Georgia. About 6,000 Lockheed jobs were lost in Burbank with that move, which was completed more than a year ago.

That means by early 1994, when the Skunks Works facilities are closed down, Burbank will have lost 10,500 Lockheed jobs since the beginning of 1990.

During the 1940s, at the height of World War II, there were more than 90,000 Lockheed workers in Burbank building military aircraft.

Lockheed Air Terminal and Lockheed Finance, two divisions with a total of about 300 employees, will remain in Burbank when the Skunk Works is closed, but the move will effectively end a 64-year relationship between the city and the aerospace and defense contractor that is based in Calabasas.

Lockheed currently owns about 320 acres of land in various parcels around the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport. There are approximately 200 buildings on the land, most of which were constructed in the 1940s.

The company has sold two small parcels and is negotiating to sell the rest to various parties, including the airport commission and the city.

So far, the city has made a deal for development of a four-building office complex called the Airport Center Project on a parcel of land it acquired from Lockheed.

Proposals for the unsold portion of the Lockheed property include construction of a new airport passenger terminal and a 750,000-square-foot retail center by Wal-Mart Stores.

Victor Gill, a spokesman for the Burbank airport authority, said last week he did not know of any progress in negotiations to buy about 100 acres of Lockheed property for a new passenger terminal. Negotiations have been under way for the land for about two years.

Ragsdale, the Lockheed spokesman, said the move to Palmdale was necessary because there was not enough room in Burbank and the facilities were outdated.

The Skunk Works, which is formally called the Lockheed-Advanced Development Co., is known for its research and development of military aircraft. Aircraft developed at the Skunk Works include the C-130 and C-5B cargo planes; the SR-71 and TR-1, two high-altitude spy planes, and the F-117 and F-22, two fighter aircraft.