Skunk Works

American  

Trademark.

1. engineering, technical, consulting, and advisory services with respect to designing, building, equipping, and testing commercial and military aircraft and related equipment at Lockheed Martin Corporation.

---

noun

1. (usually lowercase) Also skunk works, skunkworks an often secret experimental laboratory or facility for producing innovative products, as in the computer or aerospace field.

Etymology

Origin of Skunk Works

First recorded in 1943 Skunk Works for def. 1, 1965–70 Skunk Works for def. 2; after Big Barnsmell's Skonk Works, where the illicit liquor Kickapoo Joy Juice was made, in Al Capp's comic strip Li'l Abner

Example Sentences

Many in the Defense Department didn’t realize that Johnson’s streamlined, entrepreneurial management style at the Skunk Works was the reason it produced results, often at lower costs than other more-audited defense programs.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 18, 2026

Code-named ThinThread, it had been developed by technological wizards in a kind of Skunk Works on the N.S.A. campus.

From The New Yorker • Apr. 11, 2019

Lockheed Martin is counting on the legacy of rapid development at Skunk Works.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 25, 2018

It was a cyber Skunk Works, akin to the special units that once built stealth aircraft and drones.

From New York Times • Nov. 12, 2017

A few months later, a small fleet of U-2 planes began rolling off the Skunk Works assembly lines.

From "Spies: The Secret Showdown Between America and Russia" by Marc Favreau