Who knows how far the course of aviation would have gone by now if only someone had followed the lead of the Johnson boys, who designed a fabulous, streamlined airplane twenty five years too soon?
They are old men now and their hair is white. They speak slowly and let sentences lapse. But they stand straight and walk with honest pride because, as young men, they achieved something extraordinary - and today the world has acknowledged the achievement.
If the world had noticed them at the time, their name, Johnson, would have been emblazoned in aviation history next to Bleriot and Wright and Curtiss and Martin. But the young brothers were isolated in the backwoods of the Middle West and if there had been a conspiracy, events and time could not have been more brutally against them.
2 comments:
Hi Johnno,
very interesting - how true is this? If they had gone to some preppy school with an indolent but connected individual who knows what might have happened!!
Regards, Tony S.
The story reminds me of Nikola Tesla. He was a brilliant inventor and invented, built and operated the first Radio controlled craft but was terrible in the PR department and could not sell his ideas to the people. Marconi on the other hand were rich, charming with little scruples and took all the credit for the development of radio!
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