I start working (remotely) at Netflix on Monday. Supposedly, Netflix will be consolidating their Animation operations in the office complex at The Empire Center in Burbank.
When I was growing up, Burbank was a two industry town: aerospace (Lockheed) and entertainment (Warner Bros., Disney, and NBC.)
What is now the Empire Center used to be Lockheed’s old Plant B-1 where they built P-38 Lightnings during World War II. Lockheed was a critical plane manufacturer for the Allies, just as the Nakajima Aircraft Company in Burbank’s sister city of Ōta was for the Japanese.
Lockheed continued to be important throughout the Cold War, it’s Skunk Works program developing the U-2, the SR-71 Blackbird, and the F-117 Nighthawk.
The Blackbird is the most graphically interesting plane in the history of aviation. It’s so sexy, that the great Chris Claremont (father of the modern X-Men) wrote it in as the team’s plane. And this is how Kitty Pryde ended up naming her tiny alien pet dragon Lockheed.
Welcome back to Burbank!
Regarding SR-71, gotta love the Speed Check story:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AyHH9G9et0
OMG that’s an amazing story! Love it!
Congratulations and welcome back to your own home town.
During WW2 your, David Lawrence Young, Jr, was deferred from
Active duty since he had 4 children, but he was required to “serve” at home, so he became a substitute teacher and ran the printing plant at Lockheed, printing their internal company newsletter.