with Johnston flying Cobra II and his flight test boss Jack Woolams flying Cobra I. The day before the race, Cobra I crashed into Lake Ontario from a suspected canopy failure, killing Woolams. There was internal debate within Bell Aircraft as whether to continue or not, but Johnston insisted Woolams would have wanted them to race. The Cobra II crew worked all night making safety modifications and won the Thompson Trophy at the 1946 National Air Races. He set a race speed record of . Johnston helped design and later flew the rocket-propelled Bell X-1 at a speed of Mach .72 on May 22, 1947. He stayed on the program as a design advisor on modifications to the trim controls that he discovered were unusable in their manufactured configuration at high subsonic speeds. Later that year, Chuck Yeager would become famous for breaking the sound barrier in this aircraft. Once the X-1 project began to taper off, Bell Aircraft made the decision to enter the fledgling helicopter industry. Johnston learned to fly helicopters, but his passion remained for airplane testing. Boeing Company In July 1948, Johnston accepted a test pilot position with Boeing. He flew the Boeing B-47 Stratojet and piloted the first flight of the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress prototype. Johnston is best known for performing a barnstormer-style barrel roll maneuver with Boeing's pioneering 367-80 jet in a demonstration flight over Lake Washington outside Seattle, on August 7, 1955. Bill Allen, the then-president of Boeing, had invited many aero-space and airline executives to enjoy Seattle's Seafair aboard his yacht. Allen had asked Johnston to make a fly-by over Seafair to show off Boeing's new airliner. Johnston performed the barrel roll during the fly-by, reversed course with a chandelle, and performed a second barrel roll on the way back. The following Monday, Allen called Johnston to his office and asked what he thought he was doing, and responded with "I was selling airplanes". He kept his position as a test pilot, and did not get in legal trouble for his actions. Program manager and later life From 1960 to 1963, he was assistant program manager for the Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar program in Seattle. From 1964 to 1968, he was manager of the Boeing Atlantic Test Center in Cocoa Beach, Florida, working on two of Boeing's programs, the Minuteman missile and the Lunar Orbiter designed for the Apollo missions. He also worked