Lonnie Johnson built rockets, robots, and a go-kart with a lawnmower engine as a boy in segregated Mobile, Alabama, entering a national science fair as the only Black competitor at his high school's regional event. He went on to earn degrees in mechanical and nuclear engineering from Tuskegee University.
Johnson joined the US Air Force and later NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he worked on the Galileo mission to Jupiter, the Mars Observer project, and the Cassini mission to Saturn, helping to develop power systems for spacecraft exploring the outer solar system.
In 1982, while experimenting with a heat pump design in his home bathroom, Johnson accidentally created a powerful stream of water — an idea he refined over years into the Super Soaker, launched in 1990. It became one of the best-selling toys in history, and Johnson has since founded his own research companies, holding more than 100 patents spanning energy storage, batteries, and clean power technology.
- Inventor of the Super Soaker, one of the best-selling toys of all time
- Worked on NASA's Galileo and Cassini deep-space missions
- Holds over 100 patents across engineering and energy technology
- Inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame
- Founder of multiple engineering and energy research companies
- Curiosity has no boundaries.. Johnson moved fluidly between spacecraft engineering and consumer invention, following his curiosity wherever it led.
- Accidents can be opportunities.. The Super Soaker began as an accidental discovery he chose to develop rather than dismiss.
- Persistence pays off.. It took years of refinement and rejection from toy companies before the Super Soaker was picked up and became a hit.
- Keep building after success.. Rather than resting on one invention, Johnson has continued patenting new technology for decades.