Clarence Leonard Johnson was an American aeronautical and systems engineer and writer.
Background
Ethnicity:
His parents were Swedish, from the city of Malmö, county of Scania.
Clarence Johnson was born on February 27, 1910, in Ishpeming, Michigan, United States, into the family of Peter and Christine (Anderson) Johnson. His father ran a construction company.
Education
Clarence studied at Flint Central High School and graduated in 1928, then went to 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.
Clarence L. Johnson designed some of America's most advanced airplanes. Lockheed hired Johnson in 1933. As an engineer for Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, Johnson served as Right test engineer, stress analyst, weight engineer, and performed countless aerodynamic tests with wind tunnels. During his tenure as chief research engineer fohnson created the Skunk Works, a division within Lockheed that designed advanced, secret military Projects. It became associated with some of Lockheed’s most impressive achievements in aviation.
The boss sent Johnson to the University of Michigan to test a model of the aircraft in the university’s wind tunnel, where Johnson had recently worked as a student. After many trials Johnson solved the problem of instability by adding a double vertical stabilizer to the tail. Lockheed included the idea in its early metal aircraft. It appeared as a three-tail design in Lockheed’s famous Constellation, which remained in production until the mid-1950s.
Having established the administration and production facilities, called "Skunk Works", Johnson and his crew set about to create the first American operational jet fighter. The experimental version, the XP-80, first flew at Edwards Air Force Base on January 8, 1944, at speeds over five hundred miles per hour. Johnson had fulfilled his promise to deliver a jet airplane within 180 days. Production models did not come off the assembly line until 1948, however, when the plane was redesignated the F-80. Johnson had also made his mark on non-fighter aircraft.
Johnson’s last and most difficult project was in designing the SR-71, a high-altitude, long-range strategic reconnaissance airplane that repeatedly set speed and distance records. This airplane was the first to incorporate “stealth “ technology to avoid or lessen radar detection.
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Royal Aeronautical Society
Society of Automotive Engineers
Tau Beta Pi
Sigma Xi
Engineering Honor Society
Scientific Research Society
Personality
Clarence could quickly and accurately estimate design characteristics such as mass, characteristics that usually were determined through long calculations. He was also ambitious and an excellent salesman, aggressively promoting ideas while also earning others' trust. In addition, he created teams and a work environment where creativity and productivity could flourish.
Connections
In 1937, Johnson married Althea Louise Young, who worked in Lockheed's accounting department, but she died in December 1969. After that, in May 1971, he married his secretary Maryellen Elberta Meade of New York. Unfortunately, she also died after a long illness on October 13, 1980 at the age of 46. He married Meade's friend Nancy Powers Horrigan in November 1980.