Clarence Leonard "Kelly" Johnson (February 27, 1910 – December 21, 1990) was an American aeronautical and systems engineer. He is recognized for his contributions to a series of important aircraft designs, most notably the Lockheed U-2 and SR-71 Blackbird. Besides the first production aircraft to exceed Mach 3, he also produced the first fighter capable of Mach 2, the United States' first operational jet fighter, as well as the first fighter to exceed 400 mph, and many other contributions to various aircraft.
As a member and first team leader of the Lockheed Skunk Works, Johnson worked for more than four decades and is said to have been an "organizing genius". He played a leading role in the design of over forty aircraft, including several honored with the prestigious Collier Trophy, acquiring a reputation as one of the most talented and prolific aircraft design engineers in the history of aviation.
In 2003, as part of its commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers' flight, Aviation Week & Space Technology ranked Johnson eighth on its list of the top 100 "most important, most interesting, and most influential people" in the first century of aerospace. Hall Hibbard, Johnson's Lockheed boss, referring to Johnson's Swedish ancestry, once remarked to Ben Rich: "That damned Swede can actually see air."
Life
Kelly Johnson was born in the remote mining town of Ishpeming, Michigan. His parents were Swedish, from the city of Malmö, county of Scania. His father ran a construction company. Johnson was 13 years old when he won a prize for his first aircraft design. He attended Flint Central High School and graduated in 1928, then went to Flint Junior College, now known as Mott Community College, and finally to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he received a Bachelor's and Master's Degree in Aeronautical Engineering.
While attending grade school in Michigan, he was ridiculed for his name, Clarence. Some boys started calling him "Clara". One morning while waiting in line to get into a classroom, one boy started with the normal routine of calling him "Clara". Johnson tripped him so hard the boy broke a leg. The boys then decided that he was not a "Clara" after all, and started calling him "Kelly". The nickname came from the popular song at the time, "Has Anyone Here Seen Kelly? (Kelly from the Emerald Isle)". Henceforth, he was always known as "Kelly" Johnson.
In 1937, Johnson married Althea Louise Young, who worked in Lockheed's accounting department; she died in December 1969.
In May 1971, he married his secretary Maryellen Elberta Meade of New York; she died after a long illness on October 13, 1980, aged 46.
He married Meade's friend Nancy Powers Horrigan in November 1980.
His autobiography, titled Kelly: More Than My Share of it All, was published in 1985.
Johnson died at the age of 80 at St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank after physical deterioration and the advancement of senility, caused by the hardening of his arteries connecting to his brain. During visits to the hospital, his good friend and fellow engineer Ben Rich watched his condition worsen, writing, "His eyes seemed unfocused and lifeless, and increasingly began to slip in and out of coherence. I could barely stand to visit him, and many times he seemed not even to recognize me." He is buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery, Los Angeles, California.
Lockheed career
At the University of Michigan, Johnson conducted wind tunnel tests of Lockheed's proposed Model 10 airliner. He found the aircraft did not have adequate directional stability, but his professor felt it did and told Lockheed so. Upon completing his master's degree in 1933, Johnson joined Lockheed as a tool designer on a salary of $83 a month. Shortly after starting, Johnson convinced Hall Hibbard, the chief engineer, the Model 10 was unstable.
Hibbard sent Johnson back to Michigan to conduct more tests. Johnson eventually made multiple changes to the wind tunnel model, including adding an "H" tail, to address the problem. Lockheed accepted Johnson's suggestions and the Model 10 went on to be a success. This brought Johnson to the attention of company management, and he was promoted to aeronautical engineer.
After assignments as flight test engineer, stress analyst, aerodynamicist, and weight engineer, he became chief research engineer in 1938. In 1952, he was appointed chief engineer of Lockheed's Burbank, California plant, which later became the Lockheed-California Company. In 1956 he became Vice President of Research and Development there.
Johnson became Vice President of Advanced Development Projects (ADP) in 1958. The first ADP offices were nearly uninhabitable; a smelly former bourbon distillery was the first ADP location, the site where his secretive team built the first P-38 Lightning prototype. Moving from the distillery to a larger building, the stench from a nearby plastic factory was so vile that Irv Culver, one of the engineers, began answering the intra-Lockheed "house" phone "Skonk Works!"
In Al Capp's comic strip Li'l Abner, Big Barnsmell's Skonk Works (spelled with an o) was where Kickapoo Joy Juice was brewed. When the name leaked out, Lockheed ordered it changed to "Skunk Works" to avoid potential legal trouble over use of a copyrighted term. The term rapidly circulated throughout the aerospace community, and became a common nickname for research and development offices.
Johnson led or contributed to the development of a number of aircraft. A few examples illustrate the influence of his work. In the late 1930s, Johnson led the team that developed the advanced twin-engine fighter, the P-38 Lightning. Eventually, almost 10,000 Lightnings were built. They played a significant role in World War II.
In 1943, responding to United States Army Air Forces' concerns about Nazi Germany's development of high performance jet fighters, Johnson proposed to develop a jet airplane in six months. The result was the P-80 Shooting Star, which was completed on time and was America's first operational jet fighter.
In 1955, at the request of the Central Intelligence Agency, Johnson initiated construction of the airbase at Groom Lake, Nevada, later known as Area 51. This project provided a secret location for flight testing the Lockheed U-2.
Johnson also helped to design the Lockheed AQM-60 Kingfisher a decade before the famous SR-71. The Kingfisher was a highly successful single-engine Mach 4.3-capable ramjet aircraft composed mainly of steel, which was used to test American air defenses against nuclear missiles. The information and experience Johnson gained was later used to produce the A-12 spy plane for the Central Intelligence Agency. Johnson then used the combined knowledge of the Kingfisher and A-12 to produce the SR-71 Blackbird.
Johnson also led the development of the SR-71 Blackbird family of aircraft. Through a number of significant innovations, Johnson's team was able to create an aircraft that flew so high and fast that it could be neither intercepted nor shot down. No other jet airplane has matched the Blackbird's performance.
He served on Lockheed's board of directors from 1964 to 1980, becoming a senior vice president in 1969. He officially retired from Lockheed in 1975 and was succeeded by Ben Rich, but continued as a consultant at the Skunk Works. In June 1983, the Lockheed Rye Canyon Research and Development Center in Santa Clarita was renamed Kelly Johnson Research and Development Center, Lockheed-California Company, in honor of Johnson's 50 years of service to the company.
A number of factors contributed to Johnson's career. For instance, he could quickly and accurately estimate design characteristics such as mass, characteristics that usually were determined through long, ardous calculations. He was also promoting ideas while also earning others' trust. In addition, he created teams that were able to work well with each other.
Aircraft contributions
While at Lockheed, Johnson designed the P-38 Lightning fighter, made Fowler flaps work on the Model 14 Super Electra, and played a major role in converting the type into the Royal Air Force's Lockheed Hudson on short notice in 1938. He worked on the development of the Constellation for Howard Hughes' TWA airline.
Johnson contributed to the design of the following Lockheed aircraft:
Model 9D Orion, First airliner with retractable landing gear, faster than any known military aircraft of the time. Won 1937 Harmon Trophy. Model 10 Electra, flown by Amelia Earhart on her ill-fated around-the-world expedition in 1937. First aircraft to perform round-trip commercial flight over Atlantic Ocean. Model 12 Electra Junior, upgraded version of Model 10. Used to prove wing deicing using engine exhaust, as well as testing of twin-engine aircraft aboard aircraft carriers. Used by British intelligence to spy on pre-war Nazi Germany. Won 1937 Bendix Trophy. Model 14 Super Electra Upgrade variant of Model 10. In 1938, completed a world-record flight of . Model 18 Lodestar, competitor to famous DC-3. Similar operating cost, superior performance, smaller passenger capacity PV-1 Ventura, militarized version of Model 18. Would often lead B-24 bomber formations, due to being equipped with its own search radar unit. Used in both Pacific and European theater, including bombing raids on Germany, and hunting enemy submarines. P-38 Lightning, the first fighter to exceed , and the aircraft which killed Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. Holds the record for the longest interception mission of World War II. Constellation family, first family of pressurized airliners. Used in various military roles, including transporting President Eisenhower, and General MacArthur. L-049 Constellation First version of Constellation, first four engine aircraft produced by Lockheed. Upon its first flight, the chief test pilot remarked, "This machine works so well that you don't need me anymore!" L-149 Constellation, designation given to L-049 aircraft refitted with a larger fuel capacity C-69 Constellation, military transport version of the Constellation. Only one served during World War II, as a troop and VIP carrier. L-649 Constellation, improved L-049 which included overhead sleeping berth, as well as a removable cargo bay, the "Speedpak". L-749 Constellation, improved L-649. Larger fuel capacity, strengthened landing gear, and eventually weather radar. C-121/R7O/R7V Constellation, military version of L-749. Used as radar warning AWACS aircraft. President Dwight Eisenhower and General Douglas MacArthur both used the C-121A as their personal VIP transports. Also used as a freighter. PO-1W/WV-1 Warning Star, airborne early warning (AEW) variant of the C-121, used to supplement the Distant Early Warning Line. EC-121s were also used for intelligence gathering. L-1049 Super Constellation, stretched version of the Constellation, modified into several military variants. PO-2W/WV-2/WV-3/EC-121 Warning Star. AEW variant, used along with picket ships to warn of incoming Soviet bomber attacks. YC-121F/R7V-2 Constellation, experimental turboprop military transport. L-1649 Starliner, last model of the Lockheed Constellation line. Powered by four Wright R-3350 TurboCompound engines. F-80 Shooting Star, the first successful American jet fighter. First west-to-east Atlantic crossing by single-engined jet. T-33 and TV-2, trainer versions of F-80. P2V Neptune, anti-submarine bomber. Temporarily kept aboard aircraft carriers to use as a stop gap, one use, nuclear bomber. Incapable of landing on aircraft carrier after launch. XF-90, prototype penetration fighter. First USAF jet with an afterburner and the first Lockheed jet to fly supersonic. F-94 Starfire, first operational USAF fighter equipped with an afterburner and the first jet-powered all-weather fighter to enter combat.