John Leland Atwood (October 26, 1904 – March 5, 1999) was a prominent American

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considerin ...

. He worked as Chief Engineer/Executive at North American Aviation for over 35 years, succeeding

Dutch Kindelberger James Howard "Dutch" Kindelberger (May 8, 1895 – July 27, 1962) was an American aviation pioneer. He led North American Aviation from 1934 until 1960. An extroverted character, Kindelberger was famed for his emphasis on hard work, orderliness ...

as president and CEO. He developed the P-51 Mustang during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, the F-100 jet fighter, the X-15 rocket plane, and oversaw the Apollo program.

Early life

Atwood was born in Walton, Kentucky, on October 26, 1904, to Reverend Dr. Elmer Bugg Atwood and Mabel Bagby Atwood. His younger brother was the linguist Elmer Bagby Atwood. He studied at Hardin-Simmons University from 1924 to 1926, earned a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

degree, and then took postgraduate

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...

courses at the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

, to obtain his

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

degree in 1928.

Career

Atwood worked for Douglas Aircraft Company in Southern California, and joined North American Aviation in 1934. He quickly became a vice-president and in 1938 was appointed deputy general manager of North American Aviation. In 1941, he became First Vice President.

World War II

Among the aircraft designed and built by North American during World War II: the P-51 Mustang fighter plane, which achieved particularly impressive results in the Eighth Air Force; the B-25 Mitchell medium bomber, used by Jimmy Doolittle and 79 airmen in the famous Doolittle Raid; and the T-6 Texan, which almost all American and British Commonwealth airmen of the Second World War flew in training.

Post war

Atwood later became president of North American Aviation in 1948 and oversaw the development of some of the most important aircraft produced in the United States. These included the F-86 Sabre, which has shown a 10-to-1 superiority over

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

MiG-15s, during the

Korean War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Korean War , partof = the Cold War and the Korean conflict , image = Korean War Montage 2.png , image_size = 300px , caption = Clockwise from top:{ ...

. Others include the F-100 Super Sabre, X-15 rocket plane, XB-70 Valkyrie bomber, and the B-1 Lancer bomber. After World War II, Atwood used North American's resources to make its business indispensable in new high-tech fields such as the Apollo program. In 1960 he became CEO and in 1962 he became chairman of the board, following the death of Dutch Kindelberger in 1962. In 1967, Atwood partnered with Willard Rockwell to form North American Rockwell. He was president and CEO of the new company. Atwood retired in 1970 and held a position on the board until 1978. He died on March 5, 1999.

Legacy

Under the leadership of Atwood, the North American Aviation and its employees won three Collier Trophy for their work on the supersonic fighter North American F-100 Super Sabre, the North American X-15 space plane, and the Rockwell B-1 Lancer bomber. Among the many individual honors and awards given to Atwood, he had a presidential citation from Harry S. Truman for his contributions during World War II, the

Air Force Association The Air & Space Forces Association (AFA) is an independent, 501(c)(3) non-profit, professional military association for the United States Air Force and United States Space Force. Headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, its declared mission is ...

's Hap Arnold Trophy, and the Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy, awarded by the National Aeronautic Association. Atwood was elected to the International Air & Space Hall of Fame in 1984 and received the Howard Hughes Memorial Award in 1994. In the HBO series '' From the Earth to the Moon'', Atwood was portrayed by Ronny Cox. The Atwood Dorm at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California, was named after him. In 1984, he was inducted into the

National Aviation Hall of Fame The National Aviation Hall of Fame (NAHF) is a museum, annual awards ceremony and learning and research center that was founded in 1962 as an Ohio non-profit corporation in Dayton, Ohio, United States, known as the "Birthplace of Aviation" with it ...

. Atwood was on the cover of Newsweek magazine, December 21, 1964; the cover title was "Apollo and the Moon Men - North American's Lee Atwood." In 1984, Atwood was inducted into the International Air & Space Hall of Fame at the San Diego Air & Space Museum.Sprekelmeyer, Linda, editor. ''These We Honor: The International Aerospace Hall of Fame''. Donning Co. Publishers, 2006. .

References

External links

Interview with John Leland Atwood for NOVA series: To the Moon
WGBH Educational Foundation, raw footage, 1998 {{DEFAULTSORT:Atwood, John Leland National Medal of Technology recipients People from Walton, Kentucky Hardin–Simmons University alumni University of Texas alumni 1904 births 1999 deaths National Aviation Hall of Fame inductees American aerospace engineers American aerospace businesspeople