Jack grew up in Texas and received his engineering degree in 1961 from The University of Texas. He spent two summers as a student engineer with the U. S. Navy in their flight test center at Patuxent River, MD. On graduation he spent ten years in flight test and with the aerodynamics staff at Boeing. In 1969 he began an engineering practice that lasted for the next thirty four years. SHANNON engineering held major test and development contracts with engine manufacturers GE, Allied Signal and Pratt and Whitney. The company also had major contracts with Croman, Erickson and Columbia Helicopters, as well as with international corporate aircraft manufacturers. Additionally the company completed diagnostic flight test for Perkins and Coie. In 1985 the company gain brief international attention by extending the life of the Boeing 707 with the successful development of hush kit.
Jack received the Bent Pitot award from Boeing Flight Test, The Quiet Mouse award from Rohr Industries, and was the first engineer to be recognized as a consulting representative of the FAA. He serves as an emeritus on The University of Texas Advisor Council, and at the Museum of Flight. Cornell University’s Rare Manuscript Library houses the entire SHANNON engineering document library.
He is retired general aviation pilot with over three thousand hours time. He won the Victoria to Maui sail boat race in 2004. He developed a major irrigation water management program, and defined the water right on private property on the lower Yakima River. And, he has published two documentary books: “The Quiet 707” and “the 58P.” He lives in Bellevue with his black Lab and in Aeneas Valley, Okanogan County in a log house he built from trees he harvested.
