Secrets in the Sky: The Untold Story of Skunk Works

Not bad. I already knew a lot of this, but there was some little details and other things that I didn't know.

Wish they would do documentaries on newer declassified stuff.

It's a 2 hr History Channel doc of the legendary Lockheed Martin secret division. This tells the story of these engineers led by Kelly Johnson who created some of the most revolutionary aircrafts of their time. It concentrates on the U-2, SR-71 Blackbird, and FB-117 Nighthawk. Quite frankly, the first hour with U-2 and SR-71 is not the most deep or compelling examination of history. The history is nice but there is no drama until we get to the Stealth plane. It probably helps that they were the underdogs by that time. That part of the story would make for a good movie.

Annie Jacobsen is one of the "historians" in this documentary and she strikes me as a moron. She describes the Skunk Works team as a "bunch of nerds" and describes stealth aircraft as "invisible airplanes." Her characterization of this complex and nuanced time in US aviation history was both reductive and annoying to listen to. She sounded like she was trying to teach something she didn't understand to a kindergarten classroom. Why did the producers cast someone so clueless to speak on this subject?

The rest of the documentary was really brilliant stuff. But I was repeatedly annoyed by the dim-witted narration by Jacobsen.

Annie Jacobsen? Why??? Because she wrote a factually incorrect book about Area 51? Which Included some ridiculous nonsense about mutant-midget teenagers created by Josef Mengele (yeah, that one - the Nazi) flying Russian-made UFO's? Please. She isn't an aviation historian as are most of the other speakers in this video. She had nothing to do with Area 51 or anything else, other than the crappy books she has written.

Otherwise the documentary was well done and factually correct as far as I can tell.

The history of Skunk Works, the top-secret division of Lockheed that specialised in extreme, highly classified military aircraft design. Lead by the legendary Clarence "Kelly" Johnson, a titan of the aircraft industry, Skunk Works produced such revolutionary planes as the U-2, SR-71 Blackbird and FB-117 Nighthawk.

Great documentary on an organisation that, until recently, it would have been difficult to produce a documentary on, such was the clandestine nature of its work. Very interesting and edifying, as we follow the history of this organisation and some superb, ground-breaking aircraft.

Its not just a story of Skunk Works and planes like the SR-71, but the history of Kelly Johnson too. Following him gives the story a human angle and shows his genius for aircraft design and development and his influence on US airpower, and the aircraft industry in general.