The Lockheed aviation company was the first in the United States to start work on a jet powered aircraft, the L-133 design started in 1939 as a number of "Paper Projects" by engineers Clarence "Kelly" Johnson, Willis Hawkins and Hall J Hibbard. By 1940 preliminary work on a company financed jet fighter had been started, which progressed to several different versions on the drawing board. Throughout World War II, the development of a jet powered aircraft would be key for the air battles of the war. In the meantime Lockheed were working on an axial-flow L-1000 turbojet engine of their own design, which was intended to power the culmination of the fighter project, the Model L-133-02-01. This was a single seat, canard design powered by two L-1000 engines.