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 manufactu ...

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 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 Vietnam War. It ...

Career

Johnson was a personal pilot of

Arnold Palmer Arnold Daniel Palmer (September 10, 1929 – September 25, 2016) was an American professional golfer who is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most charismatic players in the sport's history. Since embarking on a professional career in ...

. He later became a test pilot for company

Learjet Learjet was a manufacturer of business jets for civilian and military use based in Wichita, Kansas, United States. Founded in the late 1950s by William Powell Lear as Swiss American Aviation Corporation, it became a subsidiary of Canadian Bomba ...

and ATG Javelin, a fighter-like training airplane. He advanced through the ranks of Cessna to President and COO. Johnson joined Bye Aerospace 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, US, on November 11, 1969, for the State of Colorado. The original and first ten Colorado aviation pioneers were inducted ...

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