It all started in a stinky former circus tent in Burbank, Calif., where a hand-picked team of Lockheed Aircraft Corp. engineers were working on a top secret project to counter the growing threat of the Luftwaffe’s jet fighters.
The year was 1943. The smell and conditions reminded the engineers of the moonshine still in Al Capp’s newspaper comic strip “Li’l Abner” known as “Skonk Works” where the brew was derived from skunks, old shoes and other secret ingredients.
“Skunk Works” became the official alias for Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Development Programs, a special, secretive division responsible for innovations, which developed the designs for the U-2, and the Lockheed Blackbirds, Nighthawks and Raptors.
In sharp contrast to the origins of Skunk Works projects, this past Thursday, June 2, visitors to the ILA Berlin Air Show caught a glimpse of Germany’s future air and missile defense system also developed with Lockheed’s participation.
As the Berlin aeronautical show clearly demonstrated, Skunk Works keeps coming up with new innovations. And most recently Lockheed Martin announced its first contract for its hybrid helium airships, which also were developed under wraps, in a deal valued at $480 million.
Airships date back to the 1920s when huge, lighter than air structures rivaled ocean liners for glamorous ways for 
passengers to travel, often across the Atlantic.
But remember the Hindenburg, which blew up while attempting to land at a naval base in New Jersey in 1937. Afterwards the notion of creating airships was pretty well consigned to the history books.
But not at Skunk Works. For the past two decades engineers at Lockheed’s secret division have been working on reviving the airship as “a modern efficient and environmentally friendly cargo transport,” according to Lockheed officials.
Lockheed’s hybrid airship shares the name with its predecessors, but is substantially different with a design that is heavier and relies on aerodynamic properties to provide lift and maximum maneuverability.
The helium-filled airships have been engineered to carry 20 tons of cargo to remote regions without roads and to even hover over water.
The similar need to transport heavy equipment and cargo in remote areas was underscored by former Soviet technology that emerged shortly after the end of the Cold War.
Atlantans may recall the “thermoplane,” a large disc-shaped lighter-than-air vehicle that the Soviets developed to transport equipment to logging, mining and construction projects in isolated parts of Siberia and elsewhere with few roads or railways.
Similar to a UFO, the craft was promoted at the time of the 1996 Olympic Games not for its cargo abilities but as enormous billboards or even for use by hoteliers as a flying hotel accommodating as many at 150 passengers.
Until three years ago, the U.S. government was supporting the development of Lockheed’s airships to meet its needs for long-endurance multi-intelligence reconnaissance. Budget cuts terminated that support.
Nor did the thermoplanes ever lifted off.
But the airships at the end of March landed their first contract when Straight-line Aviation signed a letter of intent to purchase 12 of the crafts that measure nearly a football field long with the first delivery scheduled for 2018.
The Wolverhampton, U.K.-based company in England’s Midlands is backed by balloon and airship enthusiasts including Richard Branson, who are into the project not because of their sense of adventure but for commercial gain.
Hybrid aviation is seen as an alternative to building airports and roads in remote areas as well as providing an alternative to fossil fuels.
Company officials say that Straight-line Aviation is focused on opportunities for providing services to a variety of companies in the northern forests and tundra of North America as well as remote Middle East deserts and south-east Asian islands. Also oil and gas finds off the coasts of Africa offer energy companies new extraction opportunities, but not much accompanying infrastructure.
Although similar projects have failed before, most notably the German company Gargolifter AG collapsed in 2002, Straight-line’s executives are extremely positive about their prospects. And they have indicated no concerns that another British company, based in Bedford, has reached a prototype stage with a rival design.
The $480 million letter of intent was arranged by Atlanta-based Hybrid Enterprises, which is the exclusive reseller of Lockheed Martin’s hybrid airships, and has a management team who have sold, leased and operated cargo aircraft in more than 120 countries.
Among their directors are Gen. Duncan J. McNabb, for commander of the United States Transportation Command, the single manager for global air, land and sea transportation for the Department of Defense, and Jean-Peter Jansen, the former chairman of the executive board of Lufthansa Cargo AG.
Lockheed Martin officials expect the first commercial airship to be airborne by next year and have Transport Canada and Federal Aviation Administration certification by 2018.