Wiktionary
n. A loosely organized research and development team or facility.
Wikipedia
Skunk Works is an official alias for Lockheed Martin's Advanced Development Programs (ADP), formerly called Lockheed Advanced Development Projects. Skunk Works is responsible for a number of famous aircraft designs, including the U-2, the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk, and the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor. Currently its main project is the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II, which will be used in the air forces of several countries. Production is expected to last for up to four decades. The name "Skunk Works" was taken from the moonshine factory in the comic strip Li'l Abner.
The designation "skunk works" or "skunkworks" is widely used in business, engineering, and technical fields to describe a group within an organization given a high degree of autonomy and unhampered by bureaucracy, tasked with working on advanced or secret projects.
Usage examples of "skunk works".
Rich and Leo Janos, Skunk Works (Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1994), p.
In the early 1960s the Skunk Works built an aircraft that was a generational leap ahead of anything else in the air.
Not being privy to the decisions of high Solarian strategists, Harry didn't know where the primary skunk works was.