SKUNK WORKS LIVES ON MISSION STILL SECRET, CUTTING EDGE AIRCRAFT.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

PALMDALE - Its moniker has changed, but the company formerly known as the Skunk Works is still working on the cutting edge technologies that made it famous during the Cold War.

Evolving from Lockheed unit with a nickname derived from the ``Li'l Abner'' comic strip into its own company with a copyrighted name, the Skunk Works has since been folded into Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. during a corporate reorganization.

Lockheed Martin's workers in Palmdale still develop new technologies and build aircraft prototypes as the Advanced Development Programs unit, but they also modify and overhaul older aircraft, including the once-secret U-2 spy planes and F-117 stealth fighters.

``The programs provide for next week's paycheck, Advanced Development Programs provides the pension,'' said Neil Kacena, technical director for ADP.

Now based in Palmdale after more than four decades in Burbank, the Skunk Works is noted for the secret development of aircraft that dramatically advanced aerospace technology - the stealth fighter, the 2,000-mph SR-71 Blackbird spyplane, the F-104 fighter jet.

Much of what the unit does remains secret - secret enough that when Lockheed Martin invited reporters for a tour last week, news cameras were banned.

But it does acknowledge some of the concepts it is studying. Those concepts include tankers that can refuel multiple aircraft at a time, a high-energy laser mounted on a jet fighter, and unmanned aircraft to perform reconnaissance missions.

The company's studies create a ``technology portfolio'' to draw from when the Pentagon wants to develop new aircraft, Kacena said.

Lockheed Martin's ADP staff are also providing support for Sea Shadow, a stealth ship Lockheed developed in the late 1970s. Laid up for several years after initial testing, the Navy has revived its interest in the vessel as a test bed for technologies for future destroyers and cruisers.

The Sea Shadow, now based in San Diego, is being used to test technologies for stealth, ship control, structures and automation to reduce staffing.

Palmdale workers have been involved in the design, fabrication, and support of stealth components for the vessel.

The biggest portion of the company's 3,700 Palmdale employees, about 900 workers, is involved in the Advanced Development Programs unit.

Although they aren't working on advanced concepts, other employees are also doing some cutting edge work.

A signature program for the company is the Total System Performance Responsibility contract for the F-117 stealth fighter. The contract, which involves about 20 percent of the Palmdale work force, provides for the modifications and repairs of the aircraft.

``It's a $220 million a year contract to provide everything but flightline maintenance,'' said Scott Ogden, TSPR manager.

The contract is saving the Air Force about $5 million a year compared to the costs of having an Air Force depot maintenance base maintain the aircraft, company officials.

A major modification under way is an effort to bring the fleet into a single configuration. Built in secrecy during the late 1970s and 1980s, many of the early aircraft were virtually hand built.

Having a single configuration will make it easier to train aircraft maintainers and to provide parts.

A second effort is make weapons-related software upgrades.

Lockheed Martin wants to launch a third effort aimed at holding off aircraft obsolescence. The company is looking at equipment upgrades that will keep the stealth fighter fleet flying through 2018.

Lockheed Martin says it is steadily making improvements to the maintenance times on the aircraft. In the early years of the program, it took about 20 hours of work on the aircraft's stealth materials for each hour of flight time.

That has now shrunk to 90 minutes.

``It's the only aircraft that's getting older and getting cheaper to fly,'' Ogden said.

Another major activity at Palmdale is the modification of C-130 aircraft for special missions, an operation dubbed Big Safari. Big Safari includes creating Compass Call aircraft, capable of jamming an enemy's command and control communications, and Commando Solo aircraft, which are in essence flying television and radio stations.

``We take a regular C-130 and put special lumps and bumps on it for special missions,'' said Steve Clayton, a program official.

Both types of aircraft were used during the Persian Gulf War and in the more recent air war over Kosovo.

During the Persian Gulf War, dozens of Iraqi troops were fooled into surrendering when the voice of a Saddam Hussein impersonator was broadcast from a Commando Solo aircraft over Iraqi radio frequencies, telling them the war was over, Clayton said.

Lockheed Martin employees are working on about eight C-130s at Palmdale at any given time.

Much of the attention on the company in recent months has focused on Lockheed Martin's competition with Boeing to win the joint strike fighter production contract. Labeled as the largest military aircraft production contract ever, the two companies are competing for a contract that is potentially worth $750 billion.

The fighter is being developed for use by the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marines and by the United Kingdom's Royal Navy and Royal Air Force. The United States and the United Kingdom plan to buy more than 3,000 of the aircraft and there is a potential for an equal number of aircraft to be sold to allied countries.

If Lockheed Martin wins the contract, Southern California will get about 22 percent of the joint strike fighter work, said Warren McGee, director of manufacturing.

Palmdale will likely provide stealth components, such as the leading edges of the wings and antennas. The company does similar work for the F-22 fighter program.

A decision on which company will get the green light to continue to develop the joint strike fighter is expected this fall.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color in AV edition only) Lockheed Martin workers modify a C-130 aircraft for special missions in the Big Safari program at Palmdale.

(2 -- ran in AV edition only) In addition to C-130 work, Lockheed Martin's Big Safari program at Palmdale includes creating aircraft capable of jamming an enemy's command and control communications.