Kelly Johnson could see the air. Or at least that’s how Hall Hibbard, Johnson’s boss at the Lockheed Corporation, explained the genius of one of the greatest (if not the greatest) aircraft designers in history. Over more than five decades at Lockheed, Johnson designed (or significantly contributed to the design of) as many as forty groundbreaking civilian and military aircraft. These included the P-38 Lightning (the first production aircraft to exceed 400 mph), the Lockheed Constellation (which redefined civilian air travel), the F-80 Shooting Star (the U.S. military’s first operational jet
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