engineering

John Leland Atwood

John Leland Atwood is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand John Leland Atwood rather than just read about it. In short: John Leland "Lee" Atwood (October 26, 1904 – March 5, 1999) was an American aerospace engineer who worked as Chief Engineer/Executive at North American Aviation for over 35 years, succeeding Dutch Kindelberger as president and CEO. He developed the P-51 Mustang during World War II, the F-100 jet fighter, the X-15 rocket plane, and oversaw the Apollo program.

Key takeaways

John Leland Atwood belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect John Leland Atwood to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of John Leland Atwood from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

John Leland "Lee" Atwood (October 26, 1904 – March 5, 1999) was an American aerospace engineer who worked as Chief Engineer/Executive at North American Aviation for over 35 years, succeeding Dutch Kindelberger as president and CEO. He developed the P-51 Mustang during World War II, the F-100 jet fighter, the X-15 rocket plane, and oversaw the Apollo program.

Early life Atwood was born in Walton, Kentucky, on October 26, 1904, to Reverend Dr. Elmer Bugg Atwood and Mabel Bagby Atwood. His younger brother was the linguist Elmer Bagby Atwood. He studied at Hardin-Simmons University from 1924 to 1926, earned a Bachelor of Arts degree, and then took postgraduate engineering courses at the University of Texas, to obtain his Bachelor of Science degree in 1928.

Career Atwood worked for Douglas Aircraft Company in Southern California, and joined North American Aviation in 1934. He quickly became a vice-president and in 1938 was appointed deputy general manager of North American Aviation. In 1941, he became First Vice President.

World War II

Among the aircraft designed and built by North American during World War II: the P-51 Mustang fighter plane, which achieved particularly impressive results in the Eighth Air Force; the B-25 Mitchell medium bomber, used by Jimmy Doolittle and 79 airmen in the famous Doolittle Raid; and the T-6 Texan, which almost all American and British Commonwealth airmen of the Second World War flew in training.

Post war Atwood later became president of North American Aviation in 1948 and oversaw the development of some of the most important aircraft produced in the United States. These included the F-86 Sabre, which has shown a 10-to-1 superiority over Soviet MiG-15s, during the Korean War. Others include the F-100 Super Sabre, X-15 rocket plane, XB-70 Valkyrie bomber, and the B-1 Lancer bomber. After World War II, Atwood used North American's resources to make its business indispensable in new high-tech fields such as winning the Apollo program, headed by Harrison Storms.. In 1960 he became CEO and in 1962 he became chairman of the board, following the death of Dutch Kindelberger in 1962. In 1967, Atwood partnered with Willard Rockwell to form North American Rockwell. He was president and CEO of the new company. Atwood retired in 1970 and held a position on the board until 1978. He died on March 5, 1999.

Legacy Under the leadership of Atwood, the North American Aviation and its employees won three Collier Trophy for their work on the supersonic fighter North American F-100 Super Sabre, the North American X-15 space plane, and the Rockwell B-1 Lancer bomber. Among the many individual honors and awards given to Atwood, he had a presidential citation from Harry S. Truman for his contributions during World War II, the Air Force Association's Hap Arnold Trophy, and the Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy, awarded by the National Aeronautic Association. Atwood was elected to the International Air & Space Hall of Fame in 1984 and received the Howard Hughes Memorial Award in 1994. In the HBO series From the Earth to the Moon, Atwood was portrayed by Ronny Cox. The Atwood Dorm at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California, was named after him. In 1984, he was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame. Atwood was on the cover of Newsweek magazine, December 21, 1964; the cover title was "Apollo and the Moon Men - North American's Lee Atwood." In 1984, Atwood was inducted into the International Air & Space Hall of Fame at the San Diego Air & Space Museum.

References 7. John Taye Roberts, Henry Wojnicki, editor. Atwood wonders. The Atwood Hall of Fame. Blackishwood Co. Publishers, 2003.

Further reading Boeing - Executive Biography of John Leland Atwood Five-part oral history interview with Atwood Mike Gray (1992), Angle of Attack: Harrison Storms and the Race to the Moon

External links Interview with John Leland Atwood for NOVA series: To the Moon WGBH Educational Foundation, raw footage, 1998

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with John Leland Atwood

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what John Leland Atwood claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to John Leland Atwood before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about John Leland Atwood ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of John Leland Atwood

In research: John Leland Atwood appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses John Leland Atwood in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: John Leland Atwood is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1904 births, 1999 deaths, 20th-century American engineers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for John Leland Atwood outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “John Leland Atwood” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study John Leland Atwood in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what John Leland Atwood means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain John Leland Atwood out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is John Leland Atwood in simple terms?

Why does John Leland Atwood matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study John Leland Atwood?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on John Leland Atwood.