Caldwell Johnson

<html> <head> <title>Caldwell Johnson</title> <meta name="googlebot" content="noodp"> <meta name="robots" content="noodp"> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" href="/silly-nndb-icon.png" /><style type="text/css">  </style></head> <body bgcolor=#ffffff> <center> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr><td valign=top><table width=550 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td bgcolor=white><table width="100%" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" background="/nndb.gif"> <tr> <td rowspan="2" align="left" valign="top"><a href="http://www.nndb.com/"><img src="/title.gif" width="260" height="50" border=0 alt="NNDB"></a></td> <td><table width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6"> <tr align="center"> <td width="25%" nowrap><b><font size="-1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">This is a beta version of NNDB</font></b></td> </tr> </table></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right" valign="middle"><b><font size="-1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <form action="http://search.nndb.com/search/nndb.cgi" method="get"> <input type="hidden" name="nndb" value="1"></input> <nobr>Search: <select name="omenu"> <option value="unspecified" selected>All Names</option> <option value="living">Living people</option> <option value="dead">Dead people</option> <option value="bands">Band Names</option> <option value="books">Book Titles</option> <option value="movies">Movie Titles</option> <option value="fulltext">Full Text</option> </select> for <input name="query" value="" size=24 maxlength=96> <input type=submit value="Search"> </font></b></nobr></form></td> </tr> </table>        </td></tr><tr><td bgcolor=red height=2></td></tr><map name=fool><area coords="102,0,240,14" href="/people/531/000170021/bibliography/" alt="bibliography"></map><tr bgcolor=F0F0F0><td bgcolor=F0F0F0 style="padding: 0px 15px 15px 15px;"><img src="/red-profile-2.gif" align="right" height=15 width=240 border=0 usemap=#fool><br clear="all"><table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width=100%><tr><td bgcolor=F0F0F0><font size=+3 face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Caldwell Johnson</b></font><p><b>AKA</b> Caldwell Christian Johnson<p><b>Born:</b> <a href="/lists/807/000106489/" class=proflink>16-Oct</a>-<a href="/lists/918/000105603/" class=proflink>1919</a><br><b>Birthplace:</b> Wythe, VA<br><b>Died:</b> <a href="/lists/033/000106712/" class=proflink>26-May</a>-<a href="/lists/548/000358471/" class=proflink>2013</a><br><b>Location of death:</b> <a href="/geo/627/000069420/" class=proflink>Newport News, VA</a><br><b>Cause of death:</b> unspecified<br><p><b>Gender:</b> Male<br><b>Race or Ethnicity:</b> White<br><b>Occupation:</b> Engineer<p><b>Nationality:</b> United States<br><b>Executive summary:</b> Designer, early NASA space program<p>Caldwell Johnson grew up within walking distance of Langley Field, then a landing strip for exotic and experimental aircraft, operated by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. He often loitered at the facility, and after showing some staff members his elaborately constructed model aircraft, he was hired straight out of high school by NACA's <a href="/people/849/000169342/">Robert R. Gilruth</a>. After NACA evolved into NASA, Johnson worked for decades with NASA engineer <a href="/people/461/000168954/">Max Faget</a>, helping to design the earliest experimental spacecraft, addressing issues such as bodily restraint and mobility, personal hygiene, spacecraft weight limits, and supplying and consuming food and water, based at least in the early years only on guesses about the characteristics of space.<p> For example, Johnson worked on the design of the landing module for the moon, at a time when scientists were uncertain whether the lunar surface might be swamp-like, rock-hard, or granular like salt or beach sand. He designed a magnetic "dining table", so that even without gravity, metal plates and utensils would stay on the table instead of floating away. Johnson worked on the Mercury, Apollo, and Apollo-Soyuz projects, and was only peripherally involved in the Gemini missions because even as Gemini was being planned, he was already working on what would become the Apollo project. When Faget left NASA to establish Space Industries, Inc., his own space exploration company, Johnson was hired as chief designer. Now retired, Johnson has said of his career, "I just happened to catch one of those waves, baby." His first name is pronounced "Cadwell", with the <i>l</i> silent. <p><b>Father:</b> Caldwell Christian Johnson (florist)<br><b>Wife:</b> Kathryn Lancaster (d., one daughter, one son)<br><b>Daughter:</b> Jacquelyn A. Johnson<br><b>Son:</b> J. Craig Johnson (d.)<br><p>    High School: Hampton High School, Hampton, VA<br><p>    <a href="/gov/003/000162514/">NASA</a> Engineer (1958-81)<br>    <a href="/gov/416/000171900/">National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics</a> Engineer (1937-58)<br><p> <br> <p> <table> <tr> <td align=right valign=middle style="padding-right: 5px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 22px; font-style: italic; color: #ff3333;">New!</span><br> <a href="http://mapper.nndb.com/" class="fotmlink" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; color: #dd0000;">NNDB MAPPER</a></td> <td valign=middle align=right style="border-left: 1px solid #bbb; padding-left: 5px;">Create a map starting with</td> <td valign=middle align=right><a href="http://mapper.nndb.com/start/?id=170021"><img src="/man.gif" border=0 style="padding: 2px;"></a></td> <td align=left valign=middle> <a href="http://mapper.nndb.com/start/?id=170021">Caldwell Johnson</a></td> </tr> </table> <font face="Trebuchet MS, arial, helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2">Requires Flash 7+ and Javascript.</font> <br><br><p> <font size=-1>Do you know something we don't?</font><br> <font size=-1><a href="http://commentary.nndb.com/submit/feedback/?id=170021" rel="nofollow">Submit a correction or make a comment about this profile</a></font><br> <p> <br><br><p><font size=-1>Copyright ©2019 Soylent Communications</font><p> </td></tr></table> </td></tr> </table> </td> <td width=180 align="center" valign="top" style="padding: 0px 0px 8px 25px;"></td></tr> </table> </center> </body> </html>

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Caldwell Johnson