Friday flick: "Look to Lockheed for Leadership"

This early-1940s-vintage film is a time capsule of the Lockheed Aircraft Co. at a key moment in its history. The company was just at the beginning of its war-driven growth trajectory. The film focuses on Lockheed's commercial division. It highlights the Model 18 Lodestar airliner, and offers only a glimpse of the hundreds of Hudson bombers -- the Lodestar's military variant -- then in production. Meanwhile, the P-38 Lightning -- "a man-made comet!", the narrator says -- makes a cameo appearance at the end. If you look closely, I think you see actual footage of legendary designer and Skunk Works founder Kelly Johnson in a wind tunnel at the 14-minute mark.