Both of their autobiographies are worth the read for any engineer, or aspiring engineer. I found Johnson's biography especially inspiring, as he is a man who grew up in a poor family, and worked very hard to become a highly respected aeronautical engineer, responsible for more innovative projects than any of his peers (before or since). Some of the stories that stuck with me from his book were how his father (a bricklayer in the midwest) used to have to light a fire in a barrel to heat up bricks so that the mortar would adhere to them in the winter. He also mentions that when he was a child (during the depression), he and his sister used to walk to the curves on the railroad tracks with their wagon, to pick up the coal that fell off trains so that they could heat their house. The man worked his way through college in the kitchen of one of the fraternities, soon after contributed to the design of the Electra, and then the first American jet fighter to enter service (the P-80).