Designed in the 1950s and still used today, the Lockheed U-2 (nicknamed Dragon Lady) is a super specialized, high-altitude spy plane. It’s light enough to fly at 70,000 feet, but notoriously difficult to operate. Especially land. Landing is a bitch and a half. That’s where a Tesla Model S comes in.
In 1945, the FBI raided a warehouse in Los Angeles that was used for storage by the German Consulate. Among the files, they found a collection of 3x5-inch cards kept by the Nazi regime containing contact information for important people in LA. The cards included the names, addresses, and phone numbers of people in the…
Satellites and autonomous drones have reduced our need for cutting-edge spy planes and stealth fighters. So Lockheed’s famed Skunk Works, creators of the SR-71 Blackbird, have now built a unique robot called the Spider that can crawl over the surface of blimps to find and fix tiny pinhole leaks.
Any old jerk can wear a fancy ring, but how many people can say their bling was made from materials that once flew at mach 3.2+ on the famed Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird spy plane? Now that’s some provenance.
On December 22nd, 1964, the SR-71 Blackbird took to the air for the very first time, rising above Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale with F-104 chase planes in pursuit. The occasion would mark the birth of one of the most amazing and renowned aircraft of all time.
After a maze of programs and initiatives that lasted a decade-and-a-half, the U.S. Air Force has chosen its next bomber. The battle for the contract between a consortium of Lockheed Martin-Boeing and Northrop has been hard fought and comes with huge implication, and Northrop Grumman has been selected as the winner.
On this day in 1975, the venerable X-24B, an experimental aircraft that paved the way for the Space Shuttle's lifting body design, made its 36th and final test flight in the skies over southern California. To honor that aviation milestone, here is the story of how the plane came to be.
Perhaps because it was built in secret and designed to be invisible, the stealth bomber is unforgettable the moment you see it. What few remember, though, is that the iconic silhouette almost looked like this. Here's the story of how Senior Peg came to be, why we didn't get it, and why we might want it back.
Guam's strategic location just 1,500 miles South of Japan's shores make the tiny island a very valuable piece of real estate for the US military and a very enticing target for Pyongyang's missile program. To make sure that Kim Jong Un doesn't get any funny ideas, Congress wants to arm Guam with our version of the Iron…
Lockheed Martin Skunk Works' Transformer TX started out as yet another design for the oft-predicted but never delivered flying car. But it's since turned into an entirely different type of flying machine: an autonomous way for the military to airlift vehicles and cargo to dangerous areas.
This is an awesome shot of a test F-35 zipping around California's Edwards Air Force Base sent to us by a tipster. Can you imagine this buzzing by your window?
Following a five-hour hold due to weather, today's attempt at the first-ever supersonic space jump has been cancelled. The look on Baumgartner's face after the mission-abort was announced, pictured above, says it all: this has been a disappointing day.
When most people skydive, they jump from an altitude between 3,000 and 15,000 feet. Today, extreme athlete Felix Baumgartner will leap from a balloon soaring 120,000 feet above sea level.
No, that's not a scene from The Right Stuff. It's 14 pilots of the ultra-high-altitude Lockheed U-2 in full pressure suits posing like action heroes in front of their beautiful plane. Eat it, Ed Harris.
When a military contractor is trying to sell some wacky superweapon to the Pentagon, or when the Pentagon is trying to sell some wacky superweapon to Congress, it draws a cool action picture. But why are they so horribly terrible?
Orbital debris is a large and growing problem, and no one is quite sure how to deal with it - polar lasers, nets and other concepts are still merely ideas. But we should at least monitor all that space trash, to be certain where it is and whether it's heading for something we want to protect, like the ISS or a…
Oh, you've been skydiving? That's nice. Extreme athlete Felix Baumgartner is underwhelmed by your "achievement."
This is war: 3D cones flying in every direction, dramatic music, boats everywhere, missiles, missiles, more 3D cones! If this doesn't persuade our government to hand over money to Lockheed Martin, nothing will.
After announcing its new deep space rocket and Apollo program heir, NASA says that they will give $1.61 billion to private companies to design a full system and a spacecraft capable of ferrying cargo and astronauts to the ISS.
How do you make a maple seed cool? Turning it into a state-of-the-art single-wing helicopter drone that soldiers and police officers can carry into the field, and that they launch by hurling it like a boomerang, is a pretty good start.
