[Yoda]

Yoda....I work for Boeing...are you sure you're correct about that comment..."Only one signature could release a Boeing aircraft as technically fit for sale"....what aircraft??? A commerical aircraft??? a military aircraft???

What area did Homer work in for Boeing???

DG

I know only what Homer Kelley told me in recorded conversation. And he stated that fact humbly -- no braggadocio -- in the context of a story involving functional testing and his assigned duties.

The aircraft was the B-47.

Moreover, Homer didn't work in an 'area'. His bosses had tried that years before, and from the shop foremen to the engineers, it didn't work. What was most important to him was to be proven right, and, early on, that mindset did not win many friends in the ranks. But he had the unusual talent of being able to solve "rather intricate problems", and ultimately -- under the time and production stresses of war -- people 'got it' and left him alone to pursue his work. He went where he was needed.

In his last years, he had no title.

Nor did he want one.

He was a maverick.

In more modern times, talents such as his have been institutionalized as 'skunkworks' by large companies drowning in bureauracy but still desperately seeking innovation. As an example, see Lockheed in the Viet Nam days when the C-130 was the big dog. Things couldn't get done fast enough within the corporate flowchart, so major changes had to happen apart from it.

Bottom line: Homer Kelley was outside the norm . . .

And treated as such.

He was motivated by Achievement and Love.

Power (with its money) meant nothing.