Aerospace 1909 -
Aviation pioneer Glenn L. Martin launched maiden voyage of first
aeroplane, made of silk and bamboo, in Santa Ana, CA.; June 16,
1909 - sold first commercial U.S. airplane, for $5,000;
1912 - Glenn L. Martin Company incorporated in Los Angeles, CA;
1914 - delivered first Model TT Trainer
planes to U.S. Army Signal Corps.; 1916 - merged with Wright Company, formed Wright-Martin Aircraft
Company; 1917 - backed by group of Ohio investors, Glenn
Martin left Wright-Martin Company, reestablished Glenn L.
Martin Company in Ohio; 1926 - incorporated in Maryland,
opened aircraft manufacturing plant in Middle River, near Baltimore
(still in operation); first airplane built is XT5M-1 bomber; 1961 - merged with American-Marietta Company,
renamed Martin Marietta; March 15, 1995 - Lockheed
Corporation, Martin Marietta Corporation merger completed.
Glenn L. Martin(http://www.centennialofflight.
gov/ essay/ Aerospace/Martin/ Aero12G13.jpg)
January 18, 1911 - Eugene Fly, civilian pilot for
Curtiss Aviation Company, made first landing on a ship; brought 50-hp Curtiss pusher biplane in for safe
landing on 119-ft wooden platform attached to deck of U.S.S.
Pennsylvania in San Francisco Harbor; landing gear provided with hooks
adapted to catch ropes secured by sandbags stretched across
landing platform.
January 26, 1911
- Glenn Curtiss piloted first successful hydroplane in San Diego.
November 5, 1911
- Calbraith P. Rodgers completed first transcontinental airplane
trip; took 49 days, flew from New York City to Pasadena, CA.
1912- Allan and Malcolm Loughead formed Alco Hydro-Aeroplane Company in San
Francisco, CA; June 15, 1913 - flew first aircraft, Model
G wood and fabric seaplane, over San Francisco Bay; 1916 -
established the Loughead Aircraft Manufacturing Company in Santa
Barbara, CA; March 29, 1918 - F-1 Flying Boat made first
flight (John K. "Jack" Northrop designed, helped build hull and wings);
April 12, 1918 - made first military sale to U. S. Navy
(Curtiss HS-2L flying boats); 1921 - went into liquidation
(Navy aircraft orders dried up after
end of WW I); December 13, 1926 - Lockheed brothers (last
name spelled phonetically to avoid being pronounced as 'log-head'),
group of investors formed Lockheed Aircraft Company (51% owned by Fred
E. Keeler); 1929 - acquired by Detroit Aircraft
Corporation (including Keeler's stock); 1931 - went into
receivership; 1932 - investors led by Robert Gross bailed
company out, acquired Lockheed's assets for $40,000; formed new Lockheed
Aircraft Corporation (Lloyd C. Stearman as president, Allan Lockheed as
consultant); February 23, 1934 - twin-engine, all-metal,
Model 10 Electra, with retractable landing gear, twin fins and rudders,
first to be pressurized, made first flight; helped establish company's
line of commercial passenger aircraft; January 1943 -
first flight of 40-pasenger airliner, L-049 Constellation (largest,
fastest cargo transport to serve in WW II); 1954 - first
flight of Lockheed C-130 Hercules transport aircraft (longest running
military airlifter program in world); 1955 - first flight
of top secret U-2 reconnaissance aircraft; 1956 -
developed Polaris fleet ballistic missile for U. S. Navy; 1958
- F-104 Starfighter became first plane to hold both altitude, speed
records at same time; introduced first FAA-approved flight data
recorder; 1960 - launched Polaris, first ballistic missile
to be fired from submerged submarine (to target 1,000 nautical miles
away); 1988 - U.S. Airforce disclosed existence of F-117A
Stealth Fighter, developed by Lockheed for more than a decade;
1990 - Lockheed-built Hubble Space Telescope deployed;
March 15, 1995 - Lockheed Corporation, Martin Marietta
Corporation merger completed; one of largest aerospace, defense and
technology companies in the world; July 3, 1997 -
announced $11.18 billion acquisition of Northrop Grumman Corp.
Malcolm (left), Allan Loughead
- Lockheed (http://www.pbs.org/kcet/
chasingthesun/ images/inno_lockheed_005.jpg)
November 18, 1913 - Lincoln
Beachey piloted first airplane in U.S. to perform loop-the-loop over North Island, San Diego, CA; loop at height
of 300 feet; November 28, 1913 - performed triple loop.
July 22, 1920 - Donald W. Douglas, David R. Davis formed Davis Douglas Co. near Santa Monica, CA;
July 1921 - Donald W. Douglas incorporated The Douglas
Co.; April 1922 - awarded first production contract for
DT-2s for Navy; February 16, 1925 - awarded largest
contract to date for 75 observation aircraft by War Department;
November 20, 1928 - Douglas Aircraft Co. Inc. organized;
July 1, 1933 - first Douglas airliner, DC-1, made first flight;
May 11, 1934 - DC-2, larger version of the DC-1, made
first flight; April 28, 1967 - McDonnell and Douglas
companies merged, formed McDonnell Douglas; August 1, 1997
- Boeing acquired McDonnell-Douglas in a deal valued at $16.3 billion.
March 1, 1925 -
T. Claude Ryan, former U.S. Air Service pilot, started Los Angeles San Diego Air
Line; $14.50 one way, $22.50 round trip; claimed to be first airline in United
States to operate all year on regular schedule; April 19, 1925 -
half interest in Ryan's operations (airline, aviation school, charter and
sightseeing business) acquired by Benjamin Franklin Mahoney for $7,500; renamed
Ryan Airlines; September 1926 - Los Angeles San Diego Air Line due
to decline in traffic; perfect safety record; November 23, 1926 -
partnership terminated; Mahoney bought out Ryan for $25,000 and an M-2,
continued to use Ryan Airlines name (discontinued July 1927).
October 5, 1930
- Laura Ingalls was first woman to make transcontinental airplane
flight (nine stops, four days, 30 hours 27 minutes of flying time) in D.H.
Gipsy Moth bi-plane from Roosevelt Field, NY to Grand Central
Air Terminal, Glendale, CA.
January 1932 -
John K. "Jack" Northrop, skilled and innovative designer, partnered with Donald
Douglas (51% of stock), formed Northrop Corporation in El Segundo, CA; September 1, 1937 - Douglas Aircraft Co. acquired remaining
49% shares of Northrop Corp. subsidiary, began operating facility in
August 1938 as Douglas El Segundo (Calif.) Division; January 1, 1938 - Northrop resigned; August 1939
- formed Northrop Aircraft Incorporated in Hawthorne, CA with money he
received when Douglas bought him out; 1940 - built first
aircraft, N-3PB patrol bomber, for Norwegian Air Force; won $17 million
contract to co-produce "Vengeance" dive bomber for Great Britain;
U.S. Army ordered more than 700 P-61 "Black Widow" radar-equipped night
fighters; by end of war, company had completed 1,088 aircraft;
November 1941 - Army awarded contracts for four engine-powered
XB-35 flying-wing bomber (did not fly until 1946); January 11,
1949 - $88 million B-49 contract canceled; 1959 - changed name
to Northrop Corporation; 1972 - company accused of paying
$30 million in bribes to government officials in Indonesia, Iran, Saudi
Arabia in effort to increase business; July 17, 1989 -
first flight of B-2 stealth bomber; April 1994 - acquired
Grumman Aircraft for $2.17 billion, renamed Northrop Grumman.
1934 - Charles Litton Sr., radio
enthusiast and engineering student at Stanford University, started Litton
Industries with device to mass-produce radio tubes; 1953 - Charles
Bates "Tex" Thornton, Roy L. Ash, formerly of Hughes Aircraft, founded Electro
Dynamics Corporation; acquired Litton's small microwave tube company; changed
company name to Litton Industries; 1980 - $4 billion in sales;
1981 - major supplier of night vision goggles to U.S. Army
, law enforcement agencies; 1983 - produced 20,000th
inertial navigation system, milestone in aviation history; created first
laser radar used in space (part of U.S. Department of Defense's
Strategic Defense Initiative); 1990s - split into
separate military, commercial companies: Litton Industries, Western Atlas
Inc. (oilfield services, business and automated assembly line operations); April 2001 - acquired by Northrop Grumman Corporation for $3.6
billion dollars.
November 22, 1935 - Flying
boat, The China Clipper, left San Francisco on first transpacific
air-mail flight.
January 19, 1937
- Millionaire Howard Hughes set transcontinental air record; flew monoplane from Los Angeles,
CA to Newark, NJ in 7 hours, 28 minutes
and 25 seconds.
February 20, 1937
- First successful automobile-airplane combination completed,
ready for testing; built by Westerman Arrowplane Corporation of Santa
Monica, CA, dubbed Arrowbile, claimed top air-speed of 120
mph, 70 mph on highway.
August 11, 1942- Hedy Kiesler Markey (Hedy Lamarr), of
Los Angeles, CA, and George Antheil, of Manhattan Beach, CA, received a
patent for a "Secret Communication System" ("involving the use of
carrier waves of different frequencies and is especially useful in the
remote control of dirigible craft, such as torpedoes"); "frequency
hopping"; 1957 - concept taken up by engineers at Sylvania
Electronic Systems Division; their arrangement, using electronics rather
than piano rolls, ultimately became basic tool for secure military
communications (installed on ships sent to blockade Cuba in 1962, about
three years after Lamarr-Antheil patent had expired); subsequent patents
in frequency changing, generally unrelated to torpedo control, have
referred to Lamarr-Antheil patent as basis of field, concept lies behind
principal anti-jamming device used today in U.S. government's Milstar
defense communication satellite system.
May 1, 1947
- Radar for commercial, private planes first demonstrated at Culver
City, CA on TWA airplane; bright red panel light, horn in cockpit warned pilot if plane was not at safe distance from
obstacles to flight; developed by Howard Robard Hughes, team
of electronic engineers at Hughes Aircraft Corp.
October 14, 1947
- Air Force test pilot Charles E. Yeager became first person to
break sound barrier; flew experimental Bell X One rocket
plane (nicknamed "Glamorous Glennis") over Rogers Dry Lake ( Edwards Air
Force Base) in Southern California; X-1 lifted to altitude of
25,000 feet by B-29 aircraft; released through bomb bay, rocketed to 40,000 feet,
exceeded 662 miles per hour (sound
barrier at that altitude).
November 2, 1947
- Howard Hughes piloted his huge wooden airplane, Spruce
Goose (laminated birch and spruce, originally conceived by industrialist Henry Kaiser, commissioned by
U. S. government), on its only (unannounced) flight ,70 feet above water, for a mile, for
about a minute over Long Beach Harbor in California to
prove its airworthiness to Congress; wingspan of 320 feet, powered by
eight giant propeller engine, cost $23 million, designed to carry more
than 700 men to battle, completed in 1946.
January 16, 1957
- Three B-52's took off from Castle Air Force Base in California on first nonstop, round-the-world flight by jet planes; trip lasted 45
hours and 19 minutes.
July 15, 1998 -
The Pentagon stepped up its efforts to block pending $10.7 billion
merger between defense contractors Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman
on anti-trust charges; July 16, 1998 - Lockheed scrapped multi-billion dollar merger.
(Curtiss-Wright), Louis R. Eltscher and Edward M. Young (1998). Curtiss-Wright: Greatness and Decline. (New York, NY: Twayne
Publishers, 213 p.). Curtiss-Wright Corporation--History; Aircraft
industry--United States--History.
(Curtiss-Wright), Seth Shulman (2002).
Unlocking the Sky: Glenn Hammond Curtiss and the Race to Invent the
Airplane. (New York, NY: HarperCollins, 258 p.). Curtiss, Glenn
Hammond, 1878-1930; Airplanes--History; Air pilots--United
States--Biography.
Glenn Curtiss
(http://www.todayinsci.com/C/ Curtiss_Glenn/C urtissGlennThm.jpg)
(Hughes), Albert B. Gerber. (1967). Bashful Billionaire; The
Story of Howard Hughes. (New York, NY: L. Stuart, 384 p.). Hughes,
Howard Robard, 1905-.
(Hughes), Stanton O'Keefe (1972). The Real
Howard Hughes Story (New York, NY: American Affairs Press, 251
p.). Hughes, Howard, 1905-1976; Businessmen -- United States --
Biography; Motion picture producers and directors -- United States --
Biography.
(Hughes), Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele (1979). Empire:
The Life, Legend, and Madness of Howard Hughes. (New York, NY:
Norton, 687 p.). Hughes, Howard, 1905-1976; United States--Biography.
(Hughes), Michael Drosnin (1985). Citizen Hughes:
Citizen Hughes : The Power, the Money and the Madness. (New York,
NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 532 p.). Hughes, Howard, 1905-1976;
Millionaires--United States--Biography; Political corruption--United
States; United States--Politics and government--1945-1989.
(Hughes), Robert Maheu and Richard Hack (1992). Next
to Hughes: Behind the Power and Tragic Downfall of Howard Hughes by
His Closest Advisor (New York, NY: HarperCollins, 289 p.). Maheu,
Robert; Hughes, Howard, 1905-1976; Businessmen -- United States --
Biography.
(Hughes), Charles Higham (1993). Howard
Hughes: The Secret Life (New York, NY: Putnam, 368 p.). Hughes,
Howard, 1905-1976; Businessmen -- United States -- Biography;
Millionaires -- United States -- Biography.
(Hughes), L.A. "Pat" Hyland; edited by W.A. Schoneberger
(1993).Call Me Pat: The Autobiography of the Man Howard Hughes
Chose to Lead Hughes Aircraft. (Virginia Beach, VA: Donning Co.,
415 p.).
(Hughes), Peter Harry Brown and Pat H. Broeske (1996).Howard
Hughes: The Untold Story. (New York, NY: Dutton, 482 p.). Hughes,
Howard, 1905-1976; Celebrities -- United States -- Biography;
Businessmen -- United States -- Biography; Millionaires -- United
States -- Biography.
(Hughes), Richard Hack (2001). Hughes, the Private Diaries,
Memos and Letters: The Definitive Biography of the First American
Billionaire. (Beverly Hills, CA: New Millennium Press, 468 p.). Hughes,
Howard, 1905-1976; Businesspeople--United States--Biography;
Millionaires--United States--Biography.
Howard Hughes (http://www.house.gov/cleaver/ history/hughes.jpg)
(Lockheed), David Boulton (1978).
The Grease Machine. (New York, NY: Harper & Row,, 289 p.).
Lockheed Aircraft Corporation; Corporations -- United States --
Corrupt practices -- Case studies; Corporations, American -- Corrupt
practices -- Case studies; Commercial crimes -- Case studies.
(Lockheed), Bill Yenne (1987).Lockheed. (New York, NY:
Crescent Books, 255 p.). Lockheed Aircraft Corporation; Aircraft
industry--United States; Aerospace industries--United States.
(Lockheed), Walter J. Boyne (1998).Beyond the Horizons: The
Lockheed Story. (New York, NY: Thomas Dunne Books, 542 p.). Lockheed
Aircraft Corporation--History; Aircraft industry--United
States--History; Aerospace industries--United States--History.
(Lockheed Martin), Norman R. Augustine (1998).Augustine's
Travels: A World-Class Leader Looks at Life, Business, and What It
Takes To Succeed at Both. (New York, NY: AMACOM, 262 p.).
Chairman, CEO, Lockheed Martin. Management; Leadership; Chief
executive officers; Success in business.
(Martin Marietta Corporation), Henry Still (1964). To Ride the
Wind; A Biography of Glenn L. Martin. (New York, NY: Messner, 256
p.). Martin, Glenn L. (Glenn Luther), 1886-1955.
(McDonnell Douglas), Bill Yenne (1985).McDonnell Douglas: A
Tale of Two Giants. (New York, NY: Crescent Books, 256 p.).
McDonnell Douglas Corporation--History; McDonnell Douglas
airplanes--History.
(Northrop), Ted Coleman with Robert Wenkam (1988).
Jack Northrop and the Flying Wing: The Story Behind the Stealth Bomber.
(New York, NY: Paragon House, 284 p.). Northrop, John Knudsen,
1895-1981; Aeronautical engineers--United States--Biography; B-2
bomber; Stealth aircraft.
(Northrop), Richard S. Allen (1990).The Northrop Story,
1929-1939. (New York, NY: Orion Books, 178 p.). Northrop, John
Knudsen, 1895-1981; Northrop Corporation--History;
Industrialists--United States--Biography; Aircraft industry--United
States--History.
Jack Northrop (http://www.wmof.com/ 9709b.jpg)
(Ryan Aeronautical Company), William Wagner, in collaboration with
Lee Dye (1971).Ryan, The Aviator; Being the Adventures & Ventures of
Pioneer Airman & Businessman, T. Claude Ryan. (New York, NY:
McGraw-Hill, 253 p.). Ryan, Tubal Claude, 1898- ; Ryan Aeronautical
Company.
(Ryan Aeronautical Company), Ev Cassagneres (1982).
The Spirit of Ryan. (Blue Ridge Summit, PA: Tab Books, 250 p.).
Ryan, Tubal Claude, 1898- ; Ryan Aeronautical Company--History.
Tubal Claude Ryan- Ryan
Aeronautical (http://www.sandiegohistory.org/ bio/ryan/images/ut84z.jpg)
Business History Links
Glenn Curtiss Museum
http://www.glennhcurtissmuseum.org/
Dedicated to the memory of pioneer aviator, Glenn Curtiss, the museum
contains a priceless collection relating to early aviation and local
history.
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