Alvin M. "Tex" Johnston
Full name	Alvin M. "Tex" Johnston
Lived	August 18, 1914(1914 -08-18) October 28, 1998 (aged 84)
Birth	Admire, Kansas
Nationality	U.S.A
Aviation
Famous flights	Boeing 707 and B-52 test flights
Awards	1946 Thompson Trophy

Alvin M. "Tex" Johnston (August 18, 1914 - October 29, 1998) was a jet-age test pilot for Bell Aircraft and the Boeing Company.

Contents 1 Early Years 2 Test Pilot 3 Family and Death 4 References 5 Further reading 6 External links

[edit] Early Years

Johnston was born August 18, 1914 in Admire, Kansas to farmers Alva and Ella Johnston. He made his first flight in 1925, at eleven years old, when a barnstormer landed near his home. That day, he decided to become a pilot. He received mechanics and pilot instruction, soloing at age fifteen. After graduating from high school, Johnston began barnstorming himself. Later he returned to school for engineering, but dropped out in 1939 before he could finish to get his degree.

He married his wife DeLores in 1935.

He was a civilian instructor for the Civilian Pilot Training Program. Once the United States entered World War II, Johnston transferred to the U.S. Army Air Corps Ferry Command. ^[1]

[edit] Test Pilot

In December 1942, Johnston moved to Bell Aircraft as a flight test engineer. He flew the P-39 Airacobra and the XP-63 during the prototype phases. He also flew the first US jet, the XP-59 Airacomet. Johnston earned his nick name "Tex" because of his penchant for wearing cowboy boots on the flightline.

After World War II ended, he bought two surplus Airacobras and modified them to enter and win the Thompson Trophy at the 1946 National Air Races. He set a world speed record of 379 miles per hour (610 km/h).

Johnston helped design and flew the rocket propelled Bell X-1 on May 22, 1947.^[2]

Tex then moved to be a test pilot for Boeing in July 1948. He flew the B-47 Stratojet and piloted the first flight of the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress prototype.^[3]

Tex Johnston is best known for barrel rolling the Boeing model 367-80 (better known as the Dash-80, the prototype of the KC-135 Stratotanker, which was the basis for the very first US transport jet B-707) in a demonstration flight over Lake Washington outside of Seattle, on August 7, 1955.^[4] The maneuver was caught on film and is frequently shown on the Discovery Wings cable channel in a three-minute short as part of the Touched by History series. Called before then Boeing president Bill Allen for rolling the airplane, Johnston was asked what he thought he was doing. Tex responded with "I was selling airplanes". Johnston kept his position as a test pilot, and got in no legal troubles for his actions.

From 1960 to 1963, Tex was assistant program manager for Boeing's X-20 Dyna-Soar program in Seattle, Washington.

From 1964 to 1968, he was manager of the Boeing Atlantic Test Center in Cocoa Beach, Florida, working two Boeing's programs, Minute Man missile and Lunar Orbiter designed for Apollo missions. He also worked managing Saturn and Apollo programs with NASA.

In 1968 Johnston left Boeing to manage Tex Johnston, Inc., Total-In-Flight-Simulator Inc. and Aero Spacelines(manufacture and certification of an outsized cargo airplane known as the Guppy.

In 1975, he became director and chief pilot of Stanley Aviation Corporation, focusing on personnel escape systems (ejection seats).

[edit] Family and Death

In 1991, Johnston wrote his memoirs Tex Johnston: Jet Age Test Pilot with writer Charles Barton.

Johnston developed Alzheimer's disease in the 1990s and died in 1998. He is survived by his wife DeLores and three children.

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

• Johnston, A.M. and Barton, C.. Tex Johnston: Jet Age Test Pilot. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Press, 2000. ISBN 1-56098-931-9.

[edit] External links

• Video interview
• Video of Johnston's Barrel Roll
• NAHF entry - biography in National Aviation Hall of Fame