Lonnie G Johnson is a really, really cool guy. Born in the less-than-progressive Alabama of 1949, he attended an all-black high school and eventually triumphed over any adversity he felt in the racist South to graduate from Tuskegee University with a master's degree in Nuclear Engineering (following a bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering). Qualifications which landed him a prized position in the US Air Force's Strategic Air Command, where he helped develop the stealth bomber. Which is where he had a sideline in working on rockets for NASA, working as a systems engineer for the Galileo mission to Jupiter and the Cassini mission to Saturn. Recently he's even turned his hand to developing clean energy sources, working on a method of transforming heat into electricity. Most importantly, however, this total science whizz who has fronted amazing innovations in aeronautics, energy and space travel also invented the Super Soaker. Yes, the actual Super Soaker, the preeminent water pistol of our time. Honestly we're not sure where Johnson found the time to mess around with toys primarily designed to make children cry amidst all the other breakthroughs he was working on, but it's served him well, ranking amongst the world's best-selling toys every year since its release. Not bad considering the prototype was a rough combination of PVC pipe, Plexiglass, and an empty plastic soda bottle. He ended up leaving the Strategic Air Command and going into business for himself but, technically, he was still doing stuff for NASA when he invented it. So there.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
