Long before Burbank, California, became the media capital of the world or home to aviation giants like Lockheed, it was an agricultural community of fruit orchards and sheep ranches. That all changed in the late 1910s when a massive 25-acre factory went up at the corner of San Fernando Road and Alameda Avenue.

When you think of Burbank, California, your mind probably jumps straight to Hollywood glamor. It’s the "Media Capital of the World," home to Warner Bros., Disney, and Nickelodeon. But long before the movie studios arrived, Burbank was staring down total economic ruin.

Long before Burbank became the media capital of the world, and decades before Walt Disney brought a sleek monorail system to Anaheim, a visionary eccentric named Joseph Wesley Fawkes had a wild dream. He wanted to connect the small, newly incorporated town of Burbank to downtown Los Angeles via a flying, propeller-driven aerial trolley.

When you think of Burbank, images of Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros., and the "Media Capital of the World" likely come to mind. But before the neon lights and soundstages, there was a man who put the city on the map through sheer grit and global fame.

That man was James J. Jeffries—known to the world as "The Boilermaker" and to locals as the man who helped shape the very identity of Burbank.

Lockheed Martin is known today for sleek, dominant machines like the F-22, but the road to aviation mastery was paved with prototypes that range from the visionary to the downright bizarre. Here are six Lockheed designs that challenged physics and logic but never entered mass production.

While the name "Burbank" is now synonymous with blockbuster movies and high-tech aviation, the city’s origins aren't found in a boardroom or a film studio—but in a dentist's chair.

If you’ve ever found yourself stuck in traffic near the IKEA in Burbank or catching a flight out of Hollywood Burbank Airport, you’ve walked the grounds of what was once a massive, dusty sheep ranch. The city we know today as the "Media Capital of the World" didn't start with movie studios; it started with a dentist from New Hampshire named Dr. David Burbank.

Burbank, California, is world-renowned today as the "Media Capital of the World," but before the silver screen took over, the city’s pulse was driven by the roar of radial engines and the scent of aviation fuel. The catalyst for this transformation? A sleek, wooden wonder called the Lockheed Vega.