Kelly Johnson

American aeronautical engineer
Also known as: Clarence Leonard Johnson
Quick Facts
Byname of:
Clarence Leonard Johnson
Born:
Feb. 27, 1910, Ishpeming, Mich., U.S.
Died:
Dec. 21, 1990, Burbank, Calif. (aged 80)

Kelly Johnson (born Feb. 27, 1910, Ishpeming, Mich., U.S.—died Dec. 21, 1990, Burbank, Calif.) was a highly innovative American aeronautical engineer and designer.

Johnson received his B.S. (1932) and M.S. (1933) degrees from the University of Michigan before beginning his career with the Lockheed Corporation in 1933. As head of the “Skunk Works,” Lockheed’s secret development unit, he helped design more than 40 airplanes. Among them were the P-38 Lightning (see photograph ); in 1943 the P-80 (later F-80) Shooting Star, the first American jet fighter to go into production; the Constellation (designated C-69 in its military transport role) and the later Superconstellation (1950); the F-104 Starfighter (1954), which traveled at twice the speed of sound; the high-altitude U-2 (1954), the first plane to sustain flight above 60,000 feet (18,000 m); and the YF-12 and SR-71 Blackbird, the fastest and highest-flying planes in the world, with speeds exceeding 2,000 miles per hour (3,000 kilometres per hour) and operating altitudes in excess of 85,000 feet (26,000 m). Johnson used titanium alloy instead of standard aluminum on the SR-71, which allowed high-speed flying despite intense temperatures.

Among Johnson’s many honours and awards was the Medal of Freedom (1964). After retiring from Lockheed in 1975 as senior vice president, Johnson remained a director until 1980 and was senior adviser until his death.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Quick Facts
Born:
June 18, 1925, Manila, Philippines
Died:
January 5, 1995, Los Angeles, California, U.S. (aged 69)

Ben R. Rich (born June 18, 1925, Manila, Philippines—died January 5, 1995, Los Angeles, California, U.S.) was an American engineer who conducted top secret research on advanced military aircraft while working at Lockheed Aircraft Corporation (now Lockheed Martin Corporation) under the alias Ben Dover, which he was required to adopt for security reasons. Rich helped develop more than 25 airplanes, notably the F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter-bomber, designed to elude detection on enemy radar screens; the SR-71 Blackbird, a reconnaissance craft that cruised at three times the speed of sound; and the U-2, the spy plane that flew missions over the Soviet Union from 1956 to 1960.

After earning a B.S. in 1949 from the University of California, Berkeley, and an M.S. in 1950 from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Rich joined Lockheed and was soon sent to its Advanced Development Projects (ADP) division in Burbank, California, under aircraft designer Kelly Johnson. ADP was known as the “Skunk Works,” both because of its location near a malodorous plastics factory and because it had been founded during World War II as a secret installation, much like a moonshine still of similar name operated by a character in the popular Li’l Abner comic strip. In his 1994 autobiography, Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed, Rich recounted that the technology for his crowning achievement, the F-117, virtually “fell into my lap” after a Soviet scientist openly published (1975) an idea that led to the technology for the stealth fighter-bomber.

Rich, who retired in 1991 as head of the ADP, was a recipient in 1994 of the Distinguished Service Medal, the highest U.S. military honour for a civilian. In his memory, the Ben Rich Lockheed Martin Chair of Advanced Aerospace Technologies was established at UCLA’s school of engineering.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Encyclopaedia Britannica.