Meet Clarence “Kelly” Johnson, the Genius Who Founded Skunk Works

The story of manned flight is replete with aircraft designers and aerospace engineers whose brilliance left their marks on the pages of history: The Wright Brothers (Orville and Wilbur); Mikhail Gurevich and Artem Mikoyan; Jack Northrop; Willy Messerschmitt; Sir Geoffrey de Havilland.

But in my opinion, of all the great geniuses of aircraft design—especially military aircraft design—there’s none that quite compares to Clarence “Kelly” Johnson, the mastermind behind Lockheed’s (now Lockheed Martin’s) legendary Skunk Works division.

Kelly Johnson’s Resume

Here’s a laundry list of the historically significant Lockheed aircraft that had Kelly Johnson’s imprint of genius stamped upon them:

The P-38 Lightning, the World War II fighter plane flown by America’s top two highest-scoring aces of all time, and the first fighter to exceed 400 mph.

The P-80/F-80 Shooting Star, the first U.S. jet fighter to be used in combat, and according to official U.S. Air Force records, the winner of history’s first jet vs. jet air battle (though the Soviets dispute this).

The U-2 “Dragon Lady” spy plane, still in service sixty-nine years after her invention.

The F-104 Starfighter, the first operational aircraft to sustain Mach 2 speed in flight.

The F-117 Nighthawk, the first so-called “stealth fighter” and the first stealth warbird to be successfully used in combat (though she actually functioned as a bomber, not a true fighter plane).

The SR-71 Blackbird, still the fastest air-breathing aircraft ever built (even though she’s officially been retired for twenty-five years).

Now onto the story about the man behind those warbirds.

Kelly Johnson’s Early Life

Clarence Leonard Johnson was born on February 27, 1910, in the mining town of Ishpeming, Michigan. Both of his parents were Swedish immigrants; his father owned a construction company. As noted by his official bio page on the Lockheed Martin website, “Ever since he’d trounced a local bully in grade school, he went by the more defiant nickname: ‘Kelly,’ which suited his fierce and pugnacious personality.”

It wasn’t just that “pugnacious” personality that Kelly displayed at an early age; the first tangible sign of his aeronautical engineering flair was demonstrated at the tender age of thirteen, whereupon he won a prize for his first aircraft design.

That precocious genius would proper young Kelly through Flint Central High School (Class of 1928), Flint Junior College (now known as Mott Community College), and finally the University of Michigan, where he received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in aeronautical engineering (now officially referred to as aerospace engineering).

Kelly Johnson’s Long-Lasting Life & Legacy at Lockheed

Kelly joined Lockheed in 1932, and it didn’t take long for his precocious, pugnacious personality to prove productive, prescient, and prolific. Shortly after his arrival, the twenty-two-year-old hotshot boldly waltzed into his new boss’s office, pointed to the company’s promising new aircraft, the Electra, revealed a critical instability, and then proceeded to correct the errors to the company’s amazement.

Six years later, Kelly was helping the British work the bugs out of the Hudson bomber, living up to his personal motto of “Be quick, be quiet, be on time.” Fast-forward to 1956, he became vice president of research and development, and two years after that, Johnson became vice president of Advanced Development Projects, a division that would soon acquire its far more famous nickname.

As noted by my friend Francis Gary Powers Jr.—the founder and chairman emeritus of the Cold War Museum in Vint Hill, Virginia, and son of the famous star-crossed U-2 pilot—in his excellent book Spy Pilot: Francis Gary Powers, the U-2 Incident, and a Controversial Cold War:

“‘I wanted a direct relationship between design engineer and mechanic and manufacturing…without the delays and complications of intermediate departments,’ [Johnson] said. With black-out drapes covering the windows and complete authority vested in one man, the Advanced Development Projects division, which initially included a lean staff of twenty-three engineers and a small number of technicians and mechanics, quickly grew into Kelly Johnson’s private empire. During a cryptic telephone conversation, a member of the staff made a joking reference to the rickety moonshine still in the popular Li’l Abner comic strip. Soon everyone in the know started referring to the secret hangar as the Skunk Works, which became the most fabled factory in aviation history.”

Kelly was offered the position of company president an unprecedented three times but turned down that life of top-level corporate drudgery so he could stick with the hands-on approach to doing what he truly loved doing with Skunk Works. He officially retired from Lockheed in 1975 but continued on as a consultant for several years thereafter. In 1985, he published his autobiography, Kelly: More Than My Share of It All.

His myriad honors and awards included (to name but a few) Collier Trophies, the Medal of Freedom, the National Medal of Science, and the National Security Medal.

In Memoriam

Clarence Leonard “Kelly” Johnson passed away on December 21, 1990, at St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, California, after physical deterioration and the advancement of senility. This genius of geniuses is buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Los Angeles.

He was survived by his third wife, Nancy Powers Johnson née Horrigan, who outlived her hubby by fourteen years; Kelly’s first two wives, Althea Louise Young and Maryellen Elberta Meade, preceded him in death by twenty-one and ten years, respectively.

The ultimate verbal tribute to Johnson was paid by his boss, Hall Livingstone Hibbard: “That damn Swede can actually see air.”

About the Author: Christian D. Orr

Christian D. Orr is a Senior Defense Editor for National Security Journal (NSJ). He is a former Air Force Security Forces officer, Federal law enforcement officer, and private military contractor (with assignments worked in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and an M.A. in Intelligence Studies (concentration in Terrorism Studies) from American Military University (AMU). He has also been published in The Daily Torch , The Journal of Intelligence and Cyber Security, and Simple Flying. Last but not least, he is a Companion of the Order of the Naval Order of the United States (NOUS).