Happy Belated Birthday Mr Johnson

I found this two days after the fact, however my love for Lockheed Martin has me wanting to share. This love goes beyond my employment and into the skies with the beautiful machines that it continues to send into the sky. For those who do not know who "Kelly" Johnson was, he designed many of the aircraft seen on my Top Ten Lockheed Martin creations (a list that can be seen: here). Enjoy.

A letter to Kelly Johnson on his centennial birthday
Dear Mr. Johnson,

I wouldn't dare call you Kelly. For the presumption, you might knock me out like you did that bully in elementary school, which is how you, the son of a Swedish immigrant, earned an Irish brawler's nickname like Kelly anyway. 

Today's a pretty big day for you. It would have been your 100th birthday, although I'm sure it's just as well you're not around to see it. You wouldn't have liked the fuss. You're the guy who, as a lowly tooling engineer, brashly informed Lockheed's chief engineer that his design for the Model 10 Electra was hopelessly unstable. Then, you figured out a relatively simple solution. You wouldn't have expected anyone to throw a parade for you even then for saving the company, although the chief engineer did promote you from the tooling shop to aircraft design for doing him the favor.

Thankfully, people still remember you for all the right reasons, even if they fail to always heed your example. After all, you gave us not only the P-38, P-80, T-33, F-104, U-2, Oxcart and SR-71. (Don't get me wrong; that was certainly enough of a legacy for anyone.) But what you really gave us was a template. Some people might quibble with one or two of your 14 rules, but no one questions the spirit of your uncompromising devotion to smart innovation. 

A few weeks ago I was at the Singapore Air Show. Would you believe your name came up even there? It was during Lockheed's press conference about the F-35. Steve O'Bryan, one of the F-35's globe-trotting salesmen, told us: "Kelly Johnson would have been proud of what we've done." O'Bryan was talking about the F-35 program. In response, an Aviation Week stringer, Rob Hewson, wrote the following day (see page 6):

"Clarence 'Kelly' Johnson would surely not recognize the F-35 story so far with its $100 billion overspend and its failure to deliver anything as planned. His motto of "Be quick, Be quiet, and Be on time." would equally not be recognized by the JSF program which has so far avoided compliance with pretty much all of Johnson's famous 14 rules of management."

Maybe that is what you think about F-35, but I'm not going to put any words in your mouth.

I remember you wrote in your autobiography about the time when the landing gear shaft for Lockheed's new airliner sheered. It was a relatively simple fix, but you lost three weeks of pay. Back then, if Lockheed couldn't deliver airplanes because of a problem, nobody got paid until it was fixed. 

Well, I thought about that when the Pentagon announced earlier this month that it would withhold $614 million from Lockheed. The Pentagon is keeping the funds for Lockheed's "incentive fees" until the F-35 program gets back on track. 

Whatever you think about the F-35, I bet that is something that makes you proud.

Unfortunately the letter above does make the F-35 program seem like it's in a little bit of a death spiral, although I am positive Lockheed will see it through as they always have. With such a beautiful aircraft at stake, here's to hoping.

"I never went into the air thinking I would lose." - CMDR Randy Cunningham, USN