Whereas Lockheed Martin is known for building many of the finest military aircraft in the world; Whereas the Palmdale, California location of Lockheed Martin is headquarters to the Advanced Development Programs group of the company, which is widely known as the Skunk Works ; Whereas the name the Skunk Works — (1) came from Li’l Abner, a satirical comic strip by Al Capp that was immensely popular in the 1940s and 1950s; (2) in 1943, was first used in reference to the Advanced Development Programs group when the Department of the Navy attempted to establish a conference call connection and was mistakenly transferred to the XP–80 program of the Advanced Development Programs group, which due to classification could not to be identified when the call was answered, and a member of the Advanced Development Programs group instead answered the call by saying, Skunk Works, in reference to the location of the facility next to a malodorous plastics factory in Burbank, California; and (3) would later become the name that is used for the Advanced Development Programs group today, the Skunk Works ; Whereas the founding father of the Skunk Works was Clarence L. Kelly Johnson; Whereas, in June 1943, Kelly Johnson and the Skunk Works team designed and delivered the XP–80, which became the P–80, the very first operational fighter jet of the United States, in only 143 days; Whereas the XP–80 program set the standard for super-secret, high priority, rapid execution projects performed on a minimal budget; Whereas, on August 1, 1955, the Skunk Works first flew the U–2 spy plane with the intention of operating over the Soviet Union and photographing sites of strategic interest; Whereas the U–2 became one of the most important intelligence tools during the Cold War and continues to be a critical intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance asset for the United States military