Foil: 24 Panel: 2 Column: 2 Line: 7

Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Sponsor

Honored by:
Mr. Jim Mc Kenna

Jack is a man who grew up around machines and machine shops learning his craft. He started in the machining business when he was just 15 years old and has worked in this business throughout his adult life. As his experience grew, he developed a skill in being able to devise ingenious solutions to particular customers’ problems.
During the late 1950s when Jack was an owner of a machine shop in Los Angeles, California, he was approached by a potential customer with a particular problem – they needed some large structural components machined out of titanium to support the engines of their top-secret aircraft.
Jack looked at their requirements and determined that the job was possible, but that there was no equipment exiting that was capable of machining it. Letting the lack of capable equipment not deter him, he chose to design and build his own large profiling machines to efficiently and accurately machine these extremely large diameter parts. Risking his reputation and that of his company – they succeeded in manufacturing the engine support rings for this top-secret airplane.
His customer – the Lockheed Skunk Works and the airplanes? The A12 and its successor, the famous SR71 “Blackbird”.
This was not the only aircraft program that he made similar contribution to. Other programs included the F-111, F4 and C141 among others.
Some of Jack’s parts are even on the moon, thanks to some of the early moon probes he made parts for.
This plaque is to recognize the considerable contribution that Jack McKenna has made to the manufacture of the machined aerospace components. It is also to recognize the skill and ingenuity he used to solve problems that, in the end, furthered the technology and the art of manufacturing for all types of aircraft and spacecraft. This expertise directly benefited his customers who were able to build better aircraft without compromise and his country, which was better able to defense itself by developing the tools to successfully fight the cold war. All this in spite of the technology that existed at that time.