Clarence Leonard "Kelly" Johnson (February 27, 1910 – December 21, 1990) was an aircraft engineer and aeronautical innovator. As a member and first team leader of the Lockheed Skunk Works, Johnson worked for more than four decades and is said to have been an 'organizing genius.'Bennis, Warren and Patricia Ward Biederman. Organizing Genius: The Secrets of Creative Collaboration. Perseus Books, 1997. He played a leading role in the design of over forty aircraft including several that were honored with the prestigious Collier Trophy. Johnson acquired a reputation as one of the most talented and prolific aircraft design engineers of the 20th century. In 2003, as part of its commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers' flight, Aviation Week & Space Technology ranked Johnson 8th on its list of the top 100 "most important, most interesting, and most influential people" in the first century of aerospace.All-Time Top 100 Stars of Aerospace and Aviation Announced | SpaceRef. [[June 18] 2003] Hall Hibbard, Kelly's Lockheed boss, once remarked to Ben Rich: "That damned Swede can actually see air".Jim Wilson. ''Kelly Johnson's Skunk Works Created The World's Most Amazing Planes''. Popular Mechanics, September 1999.
