note from bjohnson@onenet.net;  the following is a partial autobiography my father wrote for himself concerning his jobs in electronics in the 1950s.  He appears to have written it to support some activitiy or award and thus, it refers only to his work.  Because of this, eventhough he refers to it as "BIOGRAPHY", it is certainly "WORK BIOGRAPHY" instead.  bj





B I O G R A P H Y


Leonaru W. Johnson
Member: I. R. E.
Past Member: I.S,A.


	Mr. Johnson began his electronic career as a hobby in the mid-twenties, Early
effort in electronics was in the field of ratio and radio-servicing equipment, in-
cluding servicing and design improvement of commercially available radio servicing
equipnent. Developing his hobby into full-time effort, he engaged in electronic
design projects in communications, controls and testing equipment.

	In 1942, he was employed as a Supervisor and inspector in the Electrical
Instrument Section of Instrument Branch of Tinker AFB,  Since initially little or
no electrical instrument standardization equipments procedures or information was
available he was responsible for the design and construction of much of this type
of equipment and the development of methods and criteria necessary to insure the
integrity of electrical instruments serviced by the Tinker Facility.

	Later, when commercial equipment became available, he established a complete
Electrical Standardization Laboratory for the periodic recalibration and checking of
all electrical test equipment used at this Facility,  This project consisted of the
establishment of space, power, environmental, and equipment requirements. Developing
methods, procedures and criteria and the establishment of necessary historical records
system. During this period, he was also active in numerous design and experimental
projects.  The design of a simplified secondary standard type calibrating potentiometer
for bench use and the first airbom installation of an electronic pyrometer being
reprosentative.

	Subsequently, he transferred from Instruments to Automatic Flight Controls as 
supervisor and inspector.  Basic duties consisted of training of Automatic Flight 
Control Equipment Installation Technicians, Supervising and Inspecting their work and 
accomplishing final flight check of all autopilot installations serviced by this 
facility. The training involved both military and civilian personnel and covered 
the basic aerodynamic principles of flight, fundamentals of electronics and the 
theory of automatic flight control.  During this period he was also actively engaged 
in designs developments and improvements in the field of automatic flight control, 
testing, and training equipment. He received the ATSC Award of Merit from General 
F. S. Borum, Tinker AFB Commander for the design of electronic equipment utilized 
in the flight testing of electronic autopilots and made the first installation of
an electronic autopilot on a Link Flight Trainer.       

	Leaving Tinker Field in late 1945, he was subsequently engaged to establish 
a school of Electrical and Electronic Measurement and Control at Spartan School of 
Aeronautics, Tulsa Oklahoma. Since no commercial publications were available in 
this new field of electronics, a prerequisite of this project was the writing of 
a complete set of text books to cover the theories involved in electrical and 
electronic instrument systems, control systems, and aircraft flight control Systems. 
In addition, the establishment of this school required the development of space, 
environmental and equipment requirements for Class rooms and laboratory. The design 
of class room and laboratory lay-out, the design of special electrical and electronic 
equipment not commercially available as required for newly developed electronic 
aircraft equipment, the hiring and training of an instructor staff, the development 
of curriculum and the administrative responsibility of the subsequent school operation.

	During this period, he was also active in the design and develompent of highly 
specialized electrical and electronic equipment for testing, training and standard-
ization purposes. The design of an Omni-Range Simulator installation in Link
Flight Trainers for Spartan School of Aeronautics and the design of a proportional
type Flight Control System Analyzer for the Chinee Nationalist Government being 
examples.

	Teturning to Tinker AFB in 1950, he was employed in turn as Senior Electronic
Flight Control Equipment Flight Mechanic in Flight Test Section, flight testing electronic autopilot systems, as electronics specialists in Maintenance Engineering, 
as Aircraft Project Monitor on guided missiles and aircraft electronics projects
and as Electronics Specialist, which position he now holds.  During this period he developed the design of a lightweight minaturized universal tester for all 
synchro type aircraft systems, an electronic circuit fault-finder for identifying
and locating electrical circuit faults in aircraft wiring and developed the basic
engineering for the tie-in of the WB-29 autopilot system to the new Kearfott High
Latitude Compass System. This tie-in is presently utilized on all Air Weather
WB-29 aircraft operating in polar regions.

	In addition to the activity outlined above, he was engaged for minor periods
as geophysical research engineer, industrial electronics sales and application
engineer, and in design studies of electronic geophysical research equipment.

	He is self-educated in both arts and science with particular study in
electrical engineering, math, nucleonics, radar, aerodynamics, servomechanics,
computer-theory, technical project management, history (ancient), creative writeing
and philosophy.  He is presently enrolled in the USAF Air University extension course
on "Principles of Guided Missiles." He has had minor publication of poetic,
prosiac-(fictional) and technical writings.
	His principle hobby is study and research in the field of electronics.
In suport of this hobby, he maintains and exxtensive library and a well-equipped
laboratory in his own home.