WHO INVENTED THE SUPER SOAKER?

Meet Lonnie Johnson, the brilliant Black American engineer and inventor responsible for one of the most famous water toys ever created—the Super Soaker!

Johnson trained as a nuclear engineer and worked for the U.S. Air Force before becoming a systems engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. His work included the Galileo mission to Jupiter, and he later worked on the Mars Observer and Cassini projects.

But the story of the Super Soaker started with something completely different!

While Johnson was experimenting with an environmentally friendly heat pump, a powerful stream of water shot from a nozzle he had connected to his bathroom sink. That unexpected blast gave him an idea: this could make an incredible water toy!

Johnson received U.S. Patent No. 4,591,071 for his squirt-gun design in 1986. He later licensed the invention to Larami Corporation. By 1991, the Super Soaker had generated more than $200 million in sales and became the No. 1 selling toy in America. Over its lifetime, the Super Soaker has generated well over $1 billion in sales.

And Johnson didn't stop there. He continued inventing and developing technologies in areas including energy and rechargeable batteries and has accumulated more than 100 U.S. patents.

🚀 FROM SPACECRAFT TO WATER BLASTERS—THAT'S INNOVATION!

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