Jack Real - Career at Lockheed

Career At Lockheed

After graduating from Calumet High School in Calumet, Michigan he quickly moved on to attend Michigan Technological University, graduating in 1937. Real moved to California in 1939 and went to work for Lockheed. Less than a year later he was promoted to senior design engineer on the Lockheed Model 18 Lodestar program. That move led to designing, developing and testing many of the company's aircraft projects from the Lockheed Hudson bomber to the Lockheed Constellation.

Real was loaned to Pan American Airways for more than a year in 1943 to learn about commercial aircraft development. He served as a flight engineer for Pan Am on the South American and African routes. Back at Lockheed, he was assigned to work with aviation pioneer Kelly Johnson, and became division engineer for all flight test activities in 1957, and then chief of engineering flight test in 1960. He also was a flight test engineer on the first flight of the Lockheed C-130 Hercules on 23 August 1954. Two years later, his career advanced again with a promotion to chief engineer of research, development and testing. During 1964, he concentrated on the SR-71 Blackbird development with Johnson at the Lockheed Skunk Works and worked on aircraft testing projects at the Area 51 military base in southern Nevada. He was also in charge of the development of the Lockheed CL-475 and Lockheed XH-51 helicopters. By 1965, he was vice president and general manager for the Lockheed AH-56 Cheyenne helicopter program and by 1968 Lockheed had made him responsible for all of the company's rotary wing aircraft programs. From 1964 to 1965, he attended the University of Southern California School of Business.