Kelly Johnson

Clarence Leonard Kelly Johnson was an American aeronautical engineer renowned as the founding leader of Lockheed's Skunk Works advanced development programs. Over a career spanning more than four decades at Lockheed, he led the design of more than forty aircraft, including the P-38 Lightning, the F-104 Starfighter, the U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft and the SR-71 Blackbird, which remains one of the fastest air-breathing manned aircraft ever built. Johnson was known for his rigorous engineering discipline, summarized in his own list of management rules emphasizing simplicity, small teams and rapid iteration, an approach that shaped how experimental aircraft programs were run industry wide. He received numerous honors including the National Medal of Science and two Collier Trophies, and his Skunk Works model became a template later adopted across the aerospace industry for secretive, fast moving development projects.