Lockheed's Skunk Works comes to mind: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skunk_Works http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skunk_Works Google has its so-called X Lab: https:/

Lockheed's Skunk Works comes to mind: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skunk_Works http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skunk_Works Google has its so-called X Lab: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_X_Lab https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_X_Lab Xerox PARC: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox_PARC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox_PARC If you want to read a great page-turner history of PARC, check out Michael Hiltzik's book: Dealers of Lightning. One of his conclusions is that the laser printer alone paid for PARC several times over.