Clarence L "Kelly" Johnson, Lockheed designer
Clarence "Kelly" Johnson was born on November 27th 1910, in the mining town of Ishpeming, Michigan. His parents were Swedish immigrants
Clarence "Kelly" Johnson early years
From a young age Clarence "Kelly" Johnson was fascinated by aircraft. By the age of 12 he had decided that he wanted to design airplanes, and embarked on his first aircraft design, which he called "The Merlin 1, battle plane".
Later, the family moved to Flint, Michigan, where his father had a construction business. He graduated from Flint High School, and went for flying lessons at the local airport. Instead of giving him lessons the instructor told him "go to school".
Taking the instructors advice, Kelly Johnson enrolled at Flint Junior College, and later went on to the University of Michigan where he gained a Bachelor of Science Degree in 1932. He went on to received his Master of Science Degree in Aeronautical Engineering in 1933.
Clarence "Kelly" Johnson at Lockheed
Clarence "Kelly" Johnson testing a model of the Lockheed L-10 Electra in the University of Michigan wind tunnel in 1933
After leaving the University of Michigan, Kelly Johnson joined Lockheed in 1933 as a tool designer. At this time Lockheed was a fairly small company, and Kelly was one of only six engineers. Quickly working his way up, he became the Chief Research Engineer in 1938.
During his career at Lockheed, Clarence Johnson was resonsible for the design of numerous aircraft. These included:
Kelly Johnson with an early variant of the Lockheed U-2
- The F-80 Shooting Star
- The XF-90 Interceptor
- The T-33 and TV-2 USAF trainer jet
- The F-94 Starfire jet interceptor
- The F-104 Starfighter interceptor
- The U-2 Reconnaissance aircraft
- The SR-71 Reconnaissance aircraft
Clarence "Kelly" Johnson joined Lockheed's board of directors in 1964, becoming a senior vice president of the corporation in 1969. After he retired from Lockheed in 1975 he continued to work as a consultant. He died at the age of 80 at St Joseph Medical Center. He had been ill for several years. He is buried at Forest Lawn (Hollywood Hills), Los Angeles, California.
