Ebook Kelly More Than My Share of It All Clarence L "Kelly" Johnson Maggie Smith 9780874744910 Books

Product details Paperback 224 pages Publisher Smithsonian Books (December 17, 1989) Language English ISBN-10 0874744911

Kelly More Than My Share of It All Clarence L "Kelly" Johnson Maggie Smith 9780874744910 Books Reviews

• Kelly Johnson is definitely a legend in the aviation industry. He was responsible on the development of more than dozen of platforms; most of them were pioneering at time. It is remarkable to learn how fast and cost effective these were developed. For example, one aircraft was designed over a long weekend while Kelly was in a business trip at the UK. The revolutionary U-2 was designed by only ~50 engineers. Leading projects nowadays takes at least a decade of development and costs Billions of dollars.
  
  It seems tempting to compare between this book and Ben Rich's "Skunk Works" book. I must say that Ben Rich's book is a better choice in my opinion. Throughout his book he admires Kelly capabilities and achievements (it is interesting that Ben is hardly mentioned in Kelly's book), and provides lots of details, not just technical, on the major projects he was involved in. "Testimonies" from colleagues are included in Ben's book, describing the common practice and the state of mind of the people involved in these projects those days.Taking the SR-71 Blackbird, Ben Rich's description is much more interesting, informative, and exciting, than the rather technical description of Kelly Johnson.
  
  I would definitely recommend for aviation fans reading this book, but if you have to choose only one between the two – take Ben's "Skunk Works".
• A solid autobigraphy from the creator of Lockheed's "Skunk Works". Kelly Johnson pulls no punches and his autobiography shows his personal character throughout. However, his telling of the tale is limited by his own outlook. He gives short shrift to others sides of the story in the battles to create warcraft that the military and our country needed.
  A well-balanced counter-point is to read "Skunk Works A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed" by Ben R. Rich which continues the story and fills in things Kelly misses,
  Well worth the read as long as you keep his magnificent persistence and focus in mind.
• The legendary Kelly Johnson in his own words. So much good stuff here, but I wanted more. The first of the book, covering his youth, education, and prewar years at Lockheed is filled with satisfying detail. But the pace accelerates by WWII. So how did the Constellation acquire its beautiful, sinuous shape? What was it really like to ride as a passenger in one of the Mach 3 blackbirds he designed? There's a good blend of his personal life folded in to the narrative, and a fair bit of his management style and philosophy. Having spent my career in aerospace I agree with much of what he says... but what he takes for granted is that step 1 starts with an absolute design genius like himself. With that as a given, the design teams can indeed be wonderfully small.
  One reason the pace accelerates towards the end is that he's had a second triple bypass as he's writing the book, and is doubtless feeling the pressure of time. But I give thanks that he used his precious time to give us this book. It's a must read for people who love airplanes.
• "More than My Share of it All" is the autobiography of Clarence "Kelly" Johnson the iconic and prolific chief Engineer and designer at Lockheed Aviation from 1933-1975. He contributed to the designs of more than 40 aircraft. He is only one of two designers to have won the Collier Trophy for greatest American aerospace achievement of the year twice. (The other was Glenn Curtiss.) A companion book is "Skunk Works A Personal History of My Years at Lockheed" which is the autobiography of Ben Rich another Collier Trophy winner. It chronicles advanced development at Lockheed from 1950 - 1990.
  Kelly Johnson was an organizational genius. His "Skunk Works" based on Kelly's fourteen points for overcoming bureaucratic inefficiency using a small team of highly skilled, self-motivated individuals is recognized universally as the preferred method for time-critical advanced research. These two books describe how Kelly - and then Ben - were able to deliver cutting edge aviation technology on-time and under budget. As a former aerospace engineer I consider these books required reading for anyone contemplating a career in aerospace. I would add one other book "Quest for Performance" by former NACA scientist Lawrence Loftin, is a comprehensive history of aviation design for the non-technical reader. I have all three of these books in my library.
  Johnson's book also provides insight into Kelly the man. He took personal responsibility for the fatal accidents that are inevitable when pushing boundaries. His deliberate demeanor clashed with the flamboyant Howard Hughes with whom he collaborated in the development of the Constellation. There is one encounter where Hughes took the controls during a checkout flight and nearly killed everyone onboard including Kelly. He never flew with Hughes again.
  Kelly considers the SR-71 his crowning achievement. As an engineering triumph it has no equal. The SR-71 still holds the absolute speed and altitude records for air-breathing manned airplanes. His F-104 holds the low-altitude absolute speed record. It is unlikely that these records will be broken anytime soon.
  Kelly Johnson was the consummate minimalist. His clean functional designs are aesthetically pleasing - some like the F-104, Constellation and SR-71 are breathtaking. As with living sculptures such as birds and whales an airplane's shape is dictated not by the whims of stylists but by the laws of physics.
• Excellent autobiography of an person who was intimately involved in the development of many planes from the P-38 to the SR-71from early WW II to as recent as the 80's. Gives you an brief inside look at how planes were developed and tested as well as the character of the guys involved in the process. Gave it as a gift to my son. Said it was his favorite this year.