Charles Johnson is an American businessman and former president of

Cessna Cessna () is an American brand of general aviation aircraft owned by Textron Aviation since 2014, headquartered in Wichita, Kansas. Originally, it was a brand of the Cessna Aircraft Company, an American general aviation aircraft manufacturing c ...

Early life and education

He was born in 1942 in Georgia and grew up in Memphis. He fought in the Vietnam War flying the

T-33 The Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star (or T-Bird) is an American subsonic jet trainer. It was produced by Lockheed and made its first flight in 1948. The T-33 was developed from the Lockheed P-80/F-80 starting as TP-80C/TF-80C in development, then d ...

, T-37, T-38, and the

F-105 The Republic F-105 Thunderchief is an American supersonic fighter-bomber that served with the United States Air Force from 1958 to 1984. Capable of Mach 2, it conducted the majority of strike bombing missions during the early years of the Viet ...

Career

Johnson was a personal pilot of Arnold Palmer. He later became a test pilot for company Learjet and

ATG Javelin The ATG Javelin was an American small high-speed personal jet that was developed by the Aviation Technology Group (ATG) prior to its bankruptcy. Planned for FAA certification under 14 CFR part 23, the Javelin had a design resembling a fighter ...

, a fighter-like training airplane. He advanced through the ranks of Cessna to President and COO. Johnson joined

Bye Aerospace Bye Aerospace is an American aircraft manufacturer based in unincorporated Arapahoe County, Colorado. The company specializes in the design and manufacture of electric aircraft, including unmanned aircraft for geospatial role and light aircraft ...

in 2014 and was inducted into the

Colorado Aviation Hall of Fame The Colorado Aviation Hall of Fame was established by the Colorado Aviation Historical Society (CAHS) in Denver, Colorado, USA, on November 11, 1969 for the State of Colorado. The original and first ten Colorado aviation pioneers were inducted in ...

the same year. He was inducted into the Kansas Aviation Hall of Fame in 2015.

References

Living people 1942 births American aviators United States Air Force officers 20th-century American businesspeople {{aviation-bio-stub