Career
Like many of his contemporaries, he conducted secret war-related research during World War II, the results of which were later declassified. He was born on July 24, 1921 in Chattanooga, Tennessee to Marion O'Dell McKinney, Sr. and Louise Blackwell. He graduated from Georgia Institute of Technology in 1942 with a degree in aeronautical engineering.
He was awarded the Wright Brothers Medal in 1964 for work on the aerodynamics of V/STOL aircraft. He was the assistant chief of the Subsonic-Transonic Division of NASA. He retired from NASA in 1980. He died on August 3, 1999 at Hampton General Hospital in Hampton Roads, Virginia.
