If they dont, they rapidly lose their competency to design other vehicles. Now that legendary Lockheed engineer and chief model kit designer for the Testor Corporation, John Andrews, is dead, I can announce that he personally confirmed the design connection between the Roswell Spacecraft and the Lockheed Martin Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles (UCAVs), spyplanes, Joint Strike Fighters, and Space Shuttles. During one of the wind tunnel tests, Johnson discovered a flaw with the Electras directional stability. This airliner also had to fly 3,500mi (5,600km), well beyond the capabilities of any aircraft in 1939. I am a true believer. He founded the legendary 'Skunk Works' department for Lockheed that designed under his command innovative and revolutionary aircraft like the U-2, F-104, SR-71 (photo . The late Ben Robert Rich was the second director of Lockheed Corp.'s top-secret research and development unit known as the "Skunk Works." Founder and . Personal life Moving to their anticntic and private life he married three times. Kelly Johnson and Lockheed Story The Film Gate 72.1K subscribers Subscribe 3.4K Share Save 259K views 3 years ago #stockfootage #lockheed #history https://www.thefilmgate.com/. When Kelly rolled up his sleeves, he became unstoppable, and the nay-sayers and doubters were simply ignored or bowled over. Ben Rich may very well have asked for the device to cure him but They refused his request. I'm going to press on. Now, go on home and pour yourself a drink., Everything about this project was dark alley, cloak and dagger. The phrase; "keep it simple, stupid" is thought to have been coined by the late Kelly Johnson, who was the lead engineer at the Lockheed Skunk Works (a place responsible for the S-71 Blackbird spy plane amongst many other notable achievements). Dec. 22, 1990 12 AM PT. 2. Kelly Johnson's Skunk Works responded with a design that they claimed could fly as high as 73,000 feet with a range of 1,600 miles, based on the Lockheed XF-104 Starfighter, a slender and supersonic intercept fighter. We had the specks lab tested, and they turned out to be organic materialinsects that had been injected into the stratosphere and were circling in orbit around the earth with dust and debris at seventy-five thousand feet in the jet stream. Access by outsiders to the project and its personnel must be strictly controlled by appropriate security measures. . We already have the means to travel among the stars, but these technologies are locked up in black projects, and it would take an act of God to ever get them out to benefit humanity. The local postmaster got curious about all the crates and boxes piling up in his bins and looked up C & J in the phone book and, of course, found nothing. They should report to a division president or higher. He worked on almost all of Lockheeds projects in this time, either as an engineer, consultant or was the lead engineer. Lockheed Skunk Works former CEO knew the Roswell extraterrestrial UFO influenced designs of Testor model kits for Roswell UFO models, and U.S. top secret aircraft. Shortly after being hired by Lockheed six years earlier, Johnson had walked into his new bosss office, pointed to the companys promising new aircraft, the Electra, revealed a critical instability and then proceeded to correct the errors to the companys amazement. You can get straight As from all your Harvard profs, but youll never make the grade unless you are decisive: even a timely wrong decision is better than no decision. Today, Lockheed Martin is still at the forefront of stealth technology, mostly due to Johnsons earlier work. I often wonder what Kelly Johnson would think of Americas aerospace industry today, when we have airframe design and aeronautical performance have arguably devolved, but avionics and sensors are more advanced than ever. Today's Skunk Works employs 3,700 employees at facilities in Palmdale, California, Marietta, Georgia, and Fort Worth, Texas. As such, LBJ decided to reveal the A-12 program and the fact that the USAF was implementing a variant of the A-12, called the SR-71. Johnson found that most F-86 pilots believed that the MiG-15 was superior. Even our drawings bore the logo C & Jthe word Lockheed never appeared. We couldnt figure out what in hell it was. The picture was so clear you could see that guy reading a newspaper., I said, 'General, I believe in the well-known golden rule. Explore Skunk Quotes by authors including Abraham Lincoln, G-Dragon, and Michael Paterniti at BrainyQuote. On the black paint, he said, you were right about the advantages and I was wrong. He handed me a quarter. All Rights Reserved. We have lost something in the aerospace engineering world, and I wish we has leaders like Kelly Johnson around so that we could somehow get it back. Hall Hibbard told the Lockheed management about Johnsons contributions. Kelly Johnson's 14 Rules and Practices. But neither Lockheed nor the government had any resources to spare because of the total war effort going on. We all know you wouldn't do that to a book that was truly ancient and fragile. To this day, Kelly Johnsons resume of accomplishments reads like a list of the most iconic airplanes in aviation history. , : , . In the summer of 1938, a twenty-eight-year-old farm boy from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan found himself holed up in a London hotel room. The knowledge I have of these technologies came from the craft that were captured here. Eventually, the local newspaper caught on to that name. Before Rich died of cancer, Andrews took my . He should report to a division president or higher. It is amazing to think that one man did so much to advance mankinds aerospace capability. The Air Tactical Service Command (ATSC) of the Army Air Force met with Lockheed Aircraft Corporation to express its need for . 5. Andrews was a close personal friend of "Skunk Works" CEO Ben Rich the hand-picked successor of Skunk Works founder Kelly Johnson and the man famous for the F-117 Nighthawk "Stealth" fighter, its "half-pint" prototype the "HAVE BLUE", and the top-secret F-19 Stealth Interceptor. He lived by the motto "Be quick, be quiet, be on time." So, while in London to finalize the sale of the new Hudson bomber, the British Air Ministry requested numerous design changes, and Johnson took on the challenge over three nearly sleepless days. The team (and its leader) must earn this trust. A very simple drawing and drawing release system with great flexibility for making changes must be provided. Kelly Johnson was always fanatical about security. We got Dr. Scott of the Bureau of Standards cleared to work with us as an adviser. Privacy Terms of Use EU and UK Data Protection Notice Cookies, Boyne, Walter J. IT WASNT. This certainly helped Johnsons career and reputation in the industry. Dr. Ben R. Rich former Lockheed Skunk Works CEO confirmed: 1. Commercial bid procedures are very often better than military ones. We got these things that are handhold scanners that scan the body and determine what the condition is. Even his few dead-ends and failures had key technologies that would lead to wins or lessons learned down the road. His work thrust the aviation industry several decades into the future, going from traveling only a couple of hundred miles per hour to several times the speed of sound! I shall use my time. I don't have time to complain. This cuts down misunderstanding and correspondence to an absolute minimum. He is an AIAA Fellow and recipient of the AIAA Aircraft Design Award, the SAE Clarence L. Kelly Johnson Aerospace Vehicle Design and Development Award, The Engineers Council Clarence L. Kelly Johnson Skunk Works Award, and the Lockheed Martin Aero Star Award. We created a practical and open work environment for engineers and shop workers, forcing the guys behind the drawing boards onto the shop floor to see how their ideas were being translated into actual parts and to make any necessary changes on the spot. Here, Goldwater accused Lyndon Johnson of allowing the Soviets to out compete the US. The final thing youll need to know is dont half-heartedly wound problemskill them dead. Learn how we are strengthening the economies, industries and communities of our global partner nations. Here, he managed to convince him that the Model 10 was unstable, with Johnson leading the tails redesign. There is also the Secrecy aspect. Following his graduation in 1933, Johnson was offered and subsequently took a job at Lockheed. The Skunk Works manager must be delegated practically complete control of their program in all aspects. A born engineerI knew I wanted to design airplanes since I was twelve years old, he once saidKelly was offered the position of company president an unprecedented three times, but declined each time to oversee Skunk Works, where he remained a senior advisor even after his formal retirement in 1975. Clarence Leonard Kelly Johnson 19101990, National Academy of Sciences, accessed 8 September 2012. And then, in August 1962, they hit pay dirt and came up with the pictures that showed the Russians were planting ballistic missiles right next door, SS-4s and SS-5s. Use a small number of good people (10% to 25% compared to the so-called normal systems). Lockheed tasked Kelly Johnson with designing an aircraft that fit the specifications laid out by the US military. After WWII, the Germans were no longer the enemy, but the US was skeptical of the Soviets. 7. With many Lockheed aircraft entering service with the US military, engineers used it with test pilots, who then taught US Navy pilots. Now, go home and pour yourself a drink. As Tony LaVier, Lockheeds former chief test pilot and a frequent Kelly arm-wrestling opponent, said, it was Johnsons planes that kept us out of World War III.. SIGNING UP IS FAST, EASY AND FREE (TAKES LESS THAN A MINUTE AND IT'S A FREE FORUM), CLICK IMAGE FOR VIDEO, MAP & ARTICLE LINKS. Kelly johnson, the founder of the lockheed skunk works, established fourteen basic operating principles to govern his talented personnel and top secret projects. Nearly all biomorphic aerospace designs were inspired by the Roswell spacecraft from Kellys SR-71 Blackbird onward to todays drones, UCAVs, and aerospace craft, 3. Restrict access to outsiders. The result was an airliner better than Howard Hughes couldve asked for. Due to the P-38s incredible speed and maneuverability, one of these P-38s shot down the aircraft carrying Isoroku Yamamoto, killing him. Friedrich Nietzsche, I'd like to say this was our worst game. As one of Johnson's lieutenants wrote to Tom Peters, "Each person was told why he had been chosen: He was the best one to be had. And we have ones that can diagnose and cure cancer. That's not a bad thing, its just going to take a while before we refocus. Whilst at University, Johnson helped out on the wind tunnel testing of the Lockheed Model 10 Electra, Lockheeds answer to the Boeing 247. BE QUICK, be quiet, be on time. Because only a few people will be used in engineering and most other areas, ways must be provided to reward good performance by pay not based on the number of personnel supervised. Strong but small project offices must be provided both by the military and industry. , , , . NASA can not deny secrets discovered by UK hacker Gary McKinnon and many astronauts if it expects full funding from the Obama White House administration. Even though the engine was running fine I slowed down and lowered our altitude and made a direct line for England. Before mercury, brandy was used to fill thermometers. In total, Johnson shepherded some forty military and civilian aircraft into production. And, yes, we really did get some technology from them. Commercial bid procedures are often better than military ones. Access by outsiders to the project and its personnel must be strictly controlled by appropriate security measures. Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed by Ben Rich and Leo Janos. He believed they could not handle the truth ever. The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing. . We know what it is. In their wisdom, Lockheed officials said they had complete faith in Clarence Kelly Johnson. Johnson also helped on the construction of several air bases during his time at the Skunk Works, most notably, the one atGroom Lake, Nevada, now known asArea 51. However, this wasnt easy, especially given the role and the other specifications the P-38 needed to have. Lockheed Martin's Advanced Development Projects (ADP), known officially as Skunk Works, was a secret aeronautical research facility in Burbank, California. The inspection system as currently used by the Skunk Works, which has been approved by both the Air Force and Navy, meets the intent of existing military requirements and should be used on new projects. While in Lockheed's case the reason was the national security nature of the projects, in . He was the lead designer on several of Lockheeds greatest aircraft in the Cold War, as well as being the first leader of Lockheeds infamous Skunk Works division. That was the credo of Clarence L. (Kelly) Johnson, the aeronautical innovator who founded Lockheed's supersecret "Skunk Works" where he designed the world's fastest and highest-flying aircraftthe SR-71 Blackbird. AND BE SURE TO JOIN OUR FORUM TOO! Open, casual and free forum where you can: post and share news events, discuss, debate, learn, or share your knowledge with others or just observe quietlyyou're in control! Many of the systems Johnson pioneered on the Constellation were refined on the L-1011. 11. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. First, you have to understand that we will not get to the stars using chemical propulsion. They are working on over 500 projects, from radar coatings to war . The project was highly secret, very high priority, and time was of the essence., Inside the Skunk Works, we were a small, intensely cohesive group consisting of about fifty veteran engineers and designers and a hundred or so expert machinists and shop workers., I enjoyed the goodwill of my colleagues because most of us had worked together intimately under tremendous pressures for more than a quarter century. They should report to a division president or higher. These were so successful that Skunk Works still use them today. . Funding a program must be timely so that the contractor doesnt have to keep running to the bank to support government projects. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. How in hell did they get lifted up there? Johnson soon realized that arming the aircraft was nearly impossible, so chose another route: speed. His father, ran a construction company and his mother was a homemaker. " Skunk Works " by Ben R. Rich is a worthy sequel to Kelly Johnson's " Kelly: More Than My Share of It All ." It brings the story of the Lockheed Skunkworks, founded by Johnson, up to 1995. One Lockheed engineer, the Skunk Works founder Kelly Johnson, had an idea for how they could beat the Nazis' groundbreaking plane. 2. I marvel more and more at what enterprising engineers were able to do with slide rules and drafting tables so long ago. Created by Ben Rich and Clarence "Kelly" Johnson, Skunk Works takes its name from the . What he said might be new to many people today, but he revealed the information before his death in January 1995. The mesure of an intelligent person is the ability to change his mind." Clarence L. Johnson, Kelly: More Than My Share of It All 2 likes Like Other boys used to gang up on him and call him Clara. There must be a monthly cost review covering not only what has been spent and committed but also projected costs to the conclusion of the program. All rights reserved. The young Kelly Johnson, a brilliant engineer, led a team of only 28 people into the top secret project. Ursula K. Le Guin, She looked at him. One of our colleagues named our walled-in compound Fort Robertson because the guy and the place seemed perfectly mated, and the name stuck. The majority of the F-86 pilots wanted an aircraft that was much simpler, smaller and was faster than contemporary Soviet jets. , . Kelly Johnson, Design Pioneer of Lockheed Aircraft, Dies,. by Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson and Maggie Smith | Dec 17, 1989. He received a Bachelors degree in Aeronautical Engineering and later a Masters degree in Aeronautical Engineering. Kelly Johnson had designed the fly higher than the U-2, at 85,000ft (26,000m). The article was written by Tom Keller, an aerospace engineer who has worked as a computer systems analyst for NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory. In 1940, the Society of American Engineers (now SAE) awarded Johnson theWright Brothers Medal. It was a rare win. 1. In the video, Speed Racer launches from a Beech 1900, a civilian aircraft the U.S. Air Force, Army, Navy, and Marine Corps fly as the C-12 Huron. He did this in the hopes of earning a little money as well as a job after university. 'Secret Base' Being Built for 'Man-Eating Aliens' Revealed by US Official Records, The Brooklyn Bridge UFO - The Weirdest Story You'll Ever Hear, Two Suns Theory, Kali Yuga Cycle Completes 2025, Lockheed CEO Ben Rich Declared On His Death Bed: Extraterrestrial UFO Are Real. Kelly Johnson left an impact on both Lockheed (now Lockheed Martin) and aircraft design. The ocean waves showed up on radar like a string of tracer bullets. Any one of his many airplane designs would have honored any individual's career." President Lyndon B. Johnson. Our supplier, Titanium Metals Corporation, had only limited reserves of the precious alloy, so the CIA conducted a worldwide search and, using third parties and dummy companies, managed to unobtrusively purchase the base metal from one of the worlds leading exportersthe Soviet Union. Johnson has been awarded the Theodore von Karman Award, twice, for his aircraft designs. Welcome back. Whilst this works out at just over one a year for his entire career, naturally, some years were better than others. After a 1969 Nixon purge, administration was handled by an international board of directors in the private sector He has tied the knot with Althea Louise Young in 1937. Will Rogers, It is vitally important that we implement immigration reform. When I was working with the Skunkworks with Kelly Johnson, we signed an agreement with the government to keep very quiet about this. Now its 2021. Kelly Johnson is known for a lot of things. He should report to a division president or higher. Although slight variations exist, they go something like this: Kelly's Rules 1. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. | About Us Even the way they financed the operation was highly unconventional: using secret contingency funds, they back-doored payment to Lockheed by writing personal checks to Kelly for more than a million bucks as start-up costs. In 1964, Johnson was awarded 6 awards, and five in 1965. With its premium plus plan, youll be able to browse flight deals going for up to 90% off in business, premium economy, and economy class. In 1975, Kelly Johnson retired from Lockheed as a corporate vice president, leaving his personal understudy Ben Rich to head the Skunk Works. The inspection system as currently used by the Skunk Works, which has been approved by both the Air Force and Navy, meets the intent of existing military requirements and should be used on new projects. How did he achieve such amazing success? From there the reader is taken back to 1975 where the chief of the Skunk Works, Kelly Johnson, has asked Rich to replace him as he prepares to retire. After their first success, they applied the Skunk Works method again to create the world's first spy plane in 1954 that could take crystal clear pictures at 70,000 feet. Lockheed wanted to find out what pilots wanted for a second generation jet fighter. Lisa Norato, I certainly wasn't happy. Refresh and try again. 5 Best Aviation Games You Can Download Today! From that day on, the boy and his friends stopped calling him Clara, instead calling him Kelly after a popular song at the time. While Lockheed was working on the XP-80 project, access to, and even knowledge of, the design facility was rigidly controlled. I didn`t see the craft, nor did I see the bodies, but I certainly know some of the people that did.