Lonnie Johnson with his award winning robot at the 1968 science fair (left) and Lonnie Johnson today (right).
We continue our series on diverse men and women in history, and our celebration of Black History Month, with Dr. Lonnie Johnson, a United States Air Force veteran, former NASA engineer, and the inventor of both the Super Soaker water gun and the Nerf toy gun. Johnson was born in Mobile, Alabama, on October 6, 1949. He was fascinated with how things operated even at a young age and would regularly take apart his sister’s dolls to discover how their eyes closed. At one point he even almost burned his family’s house down trying to make his own rocket fuel.
Taking inspiration from George Washington Carver, Johnson continued his love of tinkering into high school. While attending Williamson High School, Johnson, who earned the nickname “the professor,” represented his school at the 1968 science fair sponsored by the Junior Engineering Technical Society (JETS) as the only African American student in the competition. The competition took place at the University of Alabama, where just five years earlier the governor of Alabama stood attempting to block the enrollment of two African American students. Johnson didn’t just place in the competition, he won first prize for his compressed-air-powered robot which he called, “the Linex.” After graduating, Johnson went on to attend Tuskegee University, an HBCU college famous for the Tuskegee Airmen, on a math scholarship where he earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and a master’s degree in nuclear engineering.
Johnson went on to join the United States Air Force where he ultimately helped develop the stealth bomber program. While in the Air Force, he also studied US space launches that used nuclear power. He worked with a team which provided technical support for launch recommendations that were provided to the president. His work would eventually take him to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory after he was able to identify a possible launch failure that NASA had overlooked. During his tenure at NASA, he worked on both the Galileo Mission sending a spacecraft to Jupiter, and the Cassini Mission to Saturn.
In 1982, Johnson returned to the Air Force and continued tinkering with his own projects in his spare time. That same year he completed a prototype of a longtime pet project: an environmentally friendly heat pump that would use water instead of Freon. When he went to test his new prototype, it shot a high-powered stream of water into his bathroom sink. That prototype would lay the groundwork for one of Johnson’s most famous inventions: The Super Soaker. After seven more years of tinkering and making tireless sales-pitches, Johnson left the Air Force to go into business for himself and sold his device to the Larami Corporation. Through large marketing efforts, the Super Soaker became a massive success.
Through the success of the Super Soaker, Johnson founded Johnson Research and Development in Atlanta, Georgia, which led to numerous patents. He also went on to design the N-Strike range of Nerf dart guns which used the same compressed air technology as his Super Soaker. Not one to be frivolous with his money, Johnson decided to build another scientific facility in Atlanta with some of the money he earned through his inventions. The Johnson STEM Activity Center is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization with the mission to empower students from diverse and undeserved communities through exposure to STEM.
Sources
Findley-Pinnock, I., & Lynch, K. R. (2016, February 22). BHM Highlight: Lonnie G Johnson, Air Force Engineer and Inventor of the Super Soaker. Liberty Science Center. Retrieved January 31, 2023, from https://lsc.org/news-and-social/news/bhm-highlight-lonnie-g-johnson-air-force-engineer-and-inventor-of-the-super-soaker
Kremer, W. (2016, August 15). Lonnie Johnson: The father of the Super Soaker. BBC News. Retrieved January 31, 2023, from https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-37062579
Lonnie Johnson. (2021, January 26). Biography. Retrieved January 31, 2023, from https://www.biography.com/inventor/lonnie-g-johnson
Lonnie Johnson. Inventor. Engineer. Entrepreneur. A Complete Timeline. (n.d.). Lonnie Johnson. Retrieved January 31, 2023, from http://lonniejohnson.com/timeline/#/bt_section5f2ae3fdd7533
Lonnie Johnson: Johnson Stem Activity Center: United States. (n.d.). Johnson STEM. Retrieved January 31, 2023, from https://www.johnsonstem.org/