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bttt

[alfa6]

Clarence "Kelly" Johnson retired from Lockheed in 1975 as a Senior Vice President. He stayed on at the Skunk Works as a senior adviser however where is influnce contiued to be felt.

"Our aim," he said, "is to get results cheaper, sooner, and better through application of common sense to tough problems. If it works, don't fix it."
"Reduce reports and other paperwork to a minimum."
"Keep it simple, stupid--KISS--is our constant reminder."

As a man of high integrity himself, Johnson expected complete honesty from the people of the Skunk Works. Mistakes were allowed, but they were to be brought to his attention immediately. And Kelly also expected recommendations to correct mistakes.

He was firmly convinced of the importance of being honest with people, not just telling them what they wanted to hear. He emphasized the necessity of good communication, urging us always to ask a lot of questions.

One of Kelly's challenges to employees was a standing 25-cent bet against anyone who wanted to differ with him. It was not the quarter, of course, but the distinction of winning it from the boss, Kelly said. "It's another incentive. And I've lost a few quarters, too," he admitted. But not often, it must be noted.

Just A few of the awards that Kelly Johnson was awarded:

1966 The National Medal of Science

1974 The Avaiton Hall of Fame enshrined Kelly Johnson

1975 The Wright Brothers Award

1983 The National Security Medal



Kelly Johnson's 14 Rules of Management

1.The Skunk Works manager must be delegated practically complete control of his program in all aspects. He should report to a division president or higher.

2.Strong but small project offices must be provided both by the military and industry.

3.The number of people having any connection with the project must be restricted in an almost vicious manner. Use a small number of good people (10% to 25% compared to the so-called normal systems).

4.A very simple drawing and drawing release system with great flexibility for making changes must be provided.

5.There must be a minimum number of reports required, but important work must be recorded thoroughly.

6.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. Don't have the books ninety days late and don't surprise the customer with sudden overruns.

7.The contractor must be delegated and must assume more than normal responsibility to get good vendor bids for subcontract on the project. Commercial bid procedures are very often better than military ones.

8.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. Push more basic inspection responsibility back to subcontractors and vendors. Don't duplicate so much inspection.

9.The contractor must be delegated the authority to test his final product in flight. He can and must test it in the initial stages. If he doesn't, he rapidly loses his competency to design other vehicles.

10. The specifications applying to the hardware must be agreed to well in advance of contracting. The Skunk Works practice of having a specification section stating clearly which important military specification items will not knowingly be complied with and reasons therefore is highly recommended.

11. Funding a program must be timely so that the contractor doesn't have to keep running to the bank to support government projects.

12. There must be mutual trust between the military project organization and the contractor with very close cooperation and liaison on a day-to-day basis. This cuts down misunderstanding and correspondence to an absolute minimum.

13. Access by outsiders to the project and its personnel must be strictly controlled by appropriate security measures.

14. 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.

Educational Sources

Want to find out more about Kelly Johnson.

(http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/biomems/cjohnson.html)

(http://www.wvi.com/~sr71webmaster/kelly1.htm)

(National Aviation)

[BIGLOOK]

BZ Alfa6.

The Bird flew.....and flew....and flew....

[AZamericonnie]

Thank you for the ping Alfa....hope this post was ok....it's all I have! LOL Great post!

[snippy_about_it]

I've always been envious of people who knew what they wanted or were going to do or be when they were very young. I never knew and still don't.

Thanks for the interesting new thread.

[Neil E. Wright]

hiya alfa6

you'll need to fix your HTML to change www.vetscor.org to www.vetscor.net. some dirtbag stole our .org address ... I'm trying to get it back

elsewise ... thanks for the FOXHOLE thread ... I miss them

±

"The Era of Osama lasted about an hour, from the time the first plane hit the tower to the moment the General Militia of Flight 93 reported for duty."
Toward FREEDOM

[ken5050]

Great piece..thanks for posting...

For your enjoyment, two little known factoids...

1. The crew of the "Truculent Turtle," the P2V Neptune that set the world's distance record for an unrefueled flight in 1946 from Perth, Australia to Columbus, Ohio, consisted of 4 USN pilots and a young kangaroo...

2. The Blackbird was originally designated by the military as the RS-71...Reconnaissance being the keyword here..but LBJ, who who known for his vanity, hated to wear reading glasses, so during a speech announcing the plane, misread it as the SR-71...immediately afterwards the designation was changed...

[Iris7]

Makes one ruminate on "Duty, Honor, Country."

"The Pedant, and those of an entirely different sort, will say that these are but words. On the contrary."

Starting to see how to put the Joe Foss piece together. Unlike the brave Lieutenant Frank Luke Foss lived a long life with many good stories for me to tell about him.
I never met General Foss, sadly, but I hear he was a true master of the the Force of "colorful language." Army types would have got to hear the real thing, a Corps and Navy trained expert.

My regards to the Foxhole men and women.

[concentric circles]

I like your post. I read through it last night but couldn't take time to add to your thread at the time.

Where I live there is a Kelly Johnson Parkway. They say that when he was immersed in the F-104 project he was approached with Air Force specs for a new plane and the company's corresponding proposal.

Johnson hated the whole thing but signed off on the design because Lockheed had promised the Air Force it would bid on the project and the design was up to Lockheed standards. He just objected to the company getting into the trucking business.

Ironically, Lockheed was awarded the project and the prototype first flew in August, 1954 with Kelly Johnson flying chase in a P-2.

Since then, the C-130 has been in longer continuous production than any other military aircraft, more than fifty years now.

Back to local roads, there are three streets intersecting Kelly Johnson Parkway; they are Constellation Road, Hercules Street, and Aurora Drive.

Carl Kotchian, President of Lockheed at the time, noted in a memo as Johnson's retirement approached, "...It is Kelly as a person I think we will miss most...His absolute honesty, his dedicated patriotism, he may be the most honored engineer in history, but many of the things he has done for his country will never be told, and his unswerving support for people who worked for him. It is not probable that we will see Kelly's like again..."

[Iris7]

I read that it was a fellow named Hal Hibbard, described as Lockheed's "enormously talented chief of engineering", who hired Johnson. Mr. Hibbard later impemented Johnson's designs without envy or resentment. Johnson was fiercely egotistical and abrasive.

Throughout Johnson's career Hibbard protected Johnson from the natural consequences of his personality and kept him on board and under enough control that Johnson did not become a loose cannon.

Hibbard and Johnson designed the Lightning. The P38 was perhaps the greatest fighter aircraft of the era. (The aircraft was massively incorrectly used in Europe and production went to the Pacific much to Japan's later sorrow.)

From Air Force Magazine:

Hibbard, who might reasonably have been annoyed by Johnson’s increasing hubris, always backed him. When pressed to define Johnson’s finest characteristic, Hibbard cited his great engineering skills but went on to note that Johnson “was intensely patriotic and a magnificent American.”

[SunkenCiv]

In March of 1990 for it's retirement the SR-71 streaked across the United States in 68 minutes in a 2,400 mile coast to coast flight.

The SR-71 was retired because it was obsolescent.

Status: True.

[rimshot]

[Hegewisch Dupa]

God bless the memory of this great man