Saturday, August 31, 2013

Aviation Classics Issue 21

As anyone who reads this page knows, it's the one I have trouble with. Yep, this is the 24th draft, so I am not doing well. As usual, it was an influence completely outside the research that gave me the key to how to begin this issue, how to define and distil the towering legend that is the history of this company. With the Mosquito it was Monty Python, with Lockheed Martin it was Gillan, Ian Gillan's rock band. Again, if you read this page, you will know that I listen to music or comedy while I am writing; it frees the mind and lets the details, the facts, become a story. In this case, I was listening to the excellent Glory Road and was humming along to No Easy Way when I suddenly got it. Nothing Lockheed Martin has ever done has been done the easy way. Just look at its track record or flick through these pages and you will see what I mean. Everything has always been at the cutting edge of technology or capability, pushing the edge of the envelope of manned flight further, higher or fester. The P-38; a supercharged twin when the norm was single-engined. 'Hie P-80; the first operational jet fighter in the US. The F-104; a Mach 2 interceptor.

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