Lonnie G. Johnson — Engineer · Rocket Scientist · b. 1949
A NASA engineer invented the best-selling toy on Earth — by accident.
He worked on the Galileo mission and Air Force stealth. Then, tinkering with a heat pump in his bathroom, he invented the Super Soaker. The toy funded his real dream: clean-energy engines. Genius doesn't clock out.
U.S. Patent No. 4,591,071 · May 27, 1986.