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- <text id=90TT3504>
- <title>
- Dec. 31, 1990: Died:Clarence ("Kelly") Johnson
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1990
- Dec. 31, 1990 The Best Of '90
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- MILESTONES, Page 7
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p> DIED. Clarence ("Kelly") Johnson, 80, aircraft designer who
- ran the Lockheed Corp.'s secret "Skunk Works" factory started
- in World War II; in Burbank, Calif. Johnson joined Lockheed in
- 1933 as a tool designer and went on to design the P-80 Shooting
- Star, America's first operational jet fighter. Other designs he
- worked on include the P-38 Lightning and the U-2 and SR-71
- Blackbird spy planes. Built in an eight-month crash program in
- 1955, the U-2 flew at 70,000 ft. on missions over the Soviet
- Union. Its reconnaissance photos gave President Eisenhower
- detailed intelligence about Soviet missile and bomber threats,
- showing the limits of their capabilities and helping him resist
- pressure for greater defense spending.
- </p>
-
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
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