From exploding rocket fuel to the world's most famous water gun

History · Published 7 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Lonnie Johnson didn't just invent a toy; he engineered a cultural phenomenon from a childhood of dismantling dolls and building junkyard go-karts. His journey from a segregated high school to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory reveals how radical curiosity can bridge the gap between backyard tinkering and global innovation.

Born in Mobile, Alabama, in 1949, Lonnie Johnson was raised by a World War II veteran who taught him the principles of electricity. This early exposure to mechanics led to a childhood defined by high-stakes experimentation: at age 13, he built a go-kart from junkyard scraps powered by a reconstructed lawnmower engine, and as a teenager, he nearly burned his home down attempting to cook rocket fuel in a saucepan. Johnson's path was obstructed by systemic barriers.

Attending an all-Black high school during legal segregation, he was told not to aspire beyond becoming a technician. He defied this by winning first prize at a 1968 science fair at the University of Alabama with "the Linex," a compressed-air robot built from scrap. This victory occurred just five years after Governor George Wallace had attempted to block Black students from enrolling at the same university.

After earning degrees in mechanical and nuclear engineering from Tuskegee Institute, Johnson joined the U.S. Air Force, working on stealth bomber programs, before moving to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1979. At that location, he assisted with both Saturn's Cassini project and Jupiter's Galileo voyage. He eventually transitioned to private enterprise, developing the Super Soaker in 1989—a device that reached $200 million in sales by 1991 and led to a $73 million settlement from Hasbro in 2013. Today, Johnson focuses on high-impact sustainability. He is currently developing the Johnson Thermoelectric Energy Converter (JTEC), an engine designed to convert solar heat into electricity with twice the efficiency of current technology, proving that his engineering legacy is moving toward solving global energy needs.

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