Posts: 151
From: Florida, US
Registered: May 2006

posted 05-17-2007 09:13 PM            

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Now at age 88, Caldwell Johnson is certainly one of the grand old men and unsung heroes of America's space program. His valued contributions as right-hand man to Max Faget have been detailed in various NASA history publications, in the fine Murray and Cox Apollo book, and his extensive interviews on the JSC Oral History site.

Strangely enough, the only photograph I've ever seen of him is in the Murray and Cox book — seated at his Langley drafting table when he was probably no more than 25 years old. I've searched the JSC digital image collection, the NASA 'GRIN' collection, Google...

I'm beginning to think Mr. Johnson was just too busy to have his picture taken after the age of 25!

Wondering if any of our collectors and historians here might have a photo of Caldwell Johnson to share?

Posts: 2043
From: Fairfax, VA
Registered: Feb 2007

posted 05-19-2007 07:17 AM               

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I like doing a little online research, so here is what I just found. You've probably seen it all already, but just in case...

I think your best bet would be to get a copy of The Partnership: A History of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Program (SP-4209). Online excerpts here seem to indicate that there are photos taken of him during the Soviets' visit to Houston.

Does this site show the Johnson you are looking for? Even if so, it is a very old photo, decades before what you are looking for.

He isn't one of these people shown working on Skylab, is he?

Posts: 232
From: Oxford, UK
Registered: Mar 2006

posted 05-19-2007 07:33 AM               

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Further to "The Partnership," there are two rather poor pictures of Johnson in the online edition, both in this section.

The photos are credited to the Soviet Academy of Sciences.

Further than that, I can't help you. Have you tried the NASA history office?

Posts: 72
From: Seneca, PA USA
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 05-19-2007 07:57 AM               

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Caldwell Johnson and Max Faget are interviewed in the Discovery Channel video "One Giant Leap" released back in the 1990's.

For those not familiar with the video, it concentrates primarily on Apollo 8 and 11. Johnson and Faget appear right after the end of the Apollo 8 segment, as the opening part of the Apollo 11 segment. They talk about the nature of the lunar surface and how that affected the design of the lunar module. Their part of the video runs about 2 minutes.

Posts: 151
From: Florida, US
Registered: May 2006

posted 05-19-2007 10:59 AM            

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Thank you all!

"The Partnership" has been on my list of things to read, so this bumps it closer to the top, and I'll have to track down that Discovery Channel piece. Steve, that old model airplane page is a real find!

Interesting that Johnson's two greatest talents — model building and drafting — have largely been taken over by CAD systems today.

Posts: 232
From: Oxford, UK
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Posts: 642
From: Cinci, OH
Registered: Mar 2006

posted 05-21-2007 11:17 AM               

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quote:

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Originally posted by SpaceCat:
Interesting that Johnson's two greatest talents — model building and drafting — have largely been taken over by CAD systems today.

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Johnson unfortunately remains one of the true unsung heroes of the space program. His technical acumen and drawing skills translated Faget's ideas into workable machines. I think Murry and Cox do a pretty good job of laying that out.

While doing research and interviews for the JSC Oral History Project, I was surprised by how many of the Mercury generation of engineers were avid and first-rate model airplane builders. Many continue the hobby (more an avocation, really) today. I think the experience says something about the role of hands-on experience in designing and building real hardware with your hands translating into success as an engineer, particularly at that time.

Many of you probably know the story about John Kiker, the recently deceased parachute/landing systems engineer, who sold the case for a shuttle carrier aircraft by building a working model of it and the shuttle (including separation!) for demonstration. I remember seeing NASA photos of it flying out at JSC in the early 1970s.

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posted 06-01-2013 11:01 PM               

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Johnson's work in a sense is still used to this day. He helped to come up with the concept for the androgynous docking system and a variation of it was selected for ASTP. Its design became the APAS-75 docking system, which led to the APAS-89 docking system used for shuttle/Mir missions and the ISS. The Pressurized Mating Adaptors on the ISS use a variation of the docking collar as well.

He was a great designer and while he is no longer with us, I think the legacy of his designs will still be around for some time to come.

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