Coordinates	51°44′″N23°15′″N
Company name	Lockheed Corporation
Company logo
Fate	Merged with Martin Marietta
Foundation	1912
Defunct	1995
Location	Burbank, California
Successor	Lockheed Martin }}

The Lockheed Corporation (originally ''Loughead Aircraft Manufacturing Company'') was an American aerospace company. Lockheed was founded in 1912 and later merged with Martin Marietta to form Lockheed Martin in 1995.

History

Origins

The Alco Hydro-Aeroplane Company was established in 1912 by the brothers Allan and Malcolm Loughead. This company was renamed the Loughead Aircraft Manufacturing Company and located in Santa Barbara, California.

In 1926, following the failure of Loughead, Allan Loughead formed the Lockheed Aircraft Company (the spelling was changed to match its phonetic pronunciation) in Hollywood, California. In 1929, Lockheed sold out to Detroit Aircraft Corporation.

The Great Depression ruined the aircraft market, and Detroit Aircraft went bankrupt. A group of investors headed by brothers Robert and Courtland Gross, and including Walter Varney bought the company out of receivership in 1932. The syndicate bought the company for a mere $40,000. Ironically, Allan Loughead himself had planned to bid for his own company, but had raised "only" $50,000, which he felt was too small a sum for a serious bid.

In 1934, Robert E. Gross was named chairman of the new company, the Lockheed Corporation, which was headquartered at the airport in Burbank, California. His brother Courtlandt S. Gross was a co-founder and executive, succeeding Robert as Chairman following his death in 1961.

The first successful construction that was built in any number (141 aircraft) was the Vega, best known for its use to several first- and record setting flights by, among others, Amelia Earhart, Wiley Post and George Hubert Wilkins.

In the 1930s, Lockheed spent $139,400 to develop the Model 10 Electra, a small twin-engine transport. The company sold 40 in the first year of production. Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, flew this plane on their failed attempt to circumnavigate the world in 1937. Follow-on designs, the Lockheed Model 12 Electra Junior and the Lockheed Model 14 Super Electra expanded their market.

The Model 14 also formed the basis for the Hudson bomber, which was supplied to both the British Royal Air Force and the United States military before and during World War II. Its primary role was submarine hunting.

Pre-War production

The Lockheed Model 14 formed the basis for the Hudson bomber, which was supplied to both the British Royal Air Force and the United States military before and during World War II. Its primary role was submarine hunting. The Model 14 Super Electra were sold abroad, and more than 100 were license-built in Japan for use by the Imperial Japanese Army. Lockheed was delivering airplanes to Japan until May 1939.

Production during World War II

At the beginning of World War II, Lockheed — under the guidance of Clarence (Kelly) Johnson, who is considered one of the best known American aircraft designers — answered a specification for an interceptor by submitting the P-38 Lightning fighter plane, a somewhat unorthodox twin-engine, twin-boom design. The P-38 was the only American fighter aircraft in production throughout American involvement in the war, from Pearl Harbor to Victory over Japan Day. It filled ground attack, air-to-air, and even strategic bombing roles in all theaters of the war in which the United States operated. The P-38 was responsible for shooting down more Japanese aircraft than any other U.S. Army Air Force type during the war; and is particularly famous for being the airplane that shot down Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto's airplane.

The Lockheed Vega factory was located next to Burbank's Union Airport which it had purchased in 1940. During the war, the entire area was camouflaged to fool enemy aerial reconnaissance. The factory was hidden beneath a huge burlap tarp painted to depict a peaceful semi-rural neighborhood, replete with rubber automobiles. Hundreds of fake trees, shrubs, buildings and even fire hydrants were positioned to give a three dimensional appearance. The trees and shrubs were created from chicken wire treated with an adhesive and covered with feathers to provide a leafy texture.

All told, Lockheed and its subsidiary Vega produced 19,278 aircraft during World War II, representing six percent of those produced in the war. This included 2,600 Venturas, 2,750 B-17 Flying Fortresses (built under license from Boeing), 2,900 Hudsons, and 9,000 Lightnings.

Postwar production

During World War II, Lockheed, in cooperation with Trans-World Airlines (TWA), had developed the L049 Constellation, a radical new airliner capable of flying 43 passengers between New York and London at a speed of in 13 hours. Once the Constellation (affectionately called "Connie") went into the production, the military received the first production models. After the war, the airlines received their original orders of Constellations. This gave Lockheed more than a year's head-start over other aircraft manufacturers in what was easily foreseen as the post-war modernisation of civilian air travel. The Constellations' performance set new standards which transformed the civilian transportation market. Its signature tri-tail was the result of many initial customers not having hangars tall enough for a conventional tail.

Lockheed produced a larger transport, the double-decked R6V Constitution, which was intended to make the Constellation obsolete. However, the design proved underpowered.

Skunk Works

In 1943, Lockheed began, in secrecy, development of a new jet fighter at its Burbank facility. This fighter, the Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star, became the first American jet fighter to score a kill. It also recorded the first jet-to-jet aerial kill, downing a MiG-15 in Korea, although by this time the F-80 (as it came to be known in June 1948) was already considered obsolete.

Starting with the P-80, Lockheed's secret development work was conducted by its Advanced Development Division, more commonly known as the Skunk Works. The name was taken from Al Capp's comic strip Li'l Abner. This organization has become famous and has spawned many successful Lockheed designs, including the U-2 (late 1950s), SR-71 Blackbird (1962) and F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter (1978s). The Skunk Works often created high quality designs in a short time and sometimes with limited resources.

Projects during the Cold War

In 1954, the C-130 Hercules, a durable four-engined transport, flew for the first time. The type remains in production to present day.

In 1956, Lockheed received a contract for the development of the Polaris Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile (SLBM), this would be followed by the Poseidon and Trident nuclear missiles.

Lockheed developed the F-104 Starfighter in late 1950s, the world's first Mach 2 fighter jet. In the early 1960s, the company introduced the C-141 Starlifter four-engine jet transport.

During the 1960s, Lockheed began development for two large aircraft: the C-5 Galaxy military transport and the L-1011 TriStar wide-body civil airliner. Both projects encountered delays and cost overruns. The C-5 was built to unclear initial requirements and suffered from structural weaknesses, which Lockheed was forced to correct at its own expense. The Tristar competed for the same market as the Douglas DC-10; delays in Rolls-Royce engine development caused the Tristar to fall behind the DC-10. The C-5 and L-1011 projects, along with the (canceled) U.S. Army AH-56 Cheyenne Helicopter program and embroiled shipbuilding contracts, caused Lockheed to lose large sums of money during the 1970s.

Drowning in debt, in 1971 Lockheed (then the largest US defense contractor) asked the US Government for a loan guarantee, to avoid insolvency. The measure was hotly debated in the US Senate. The chief antagonist was Senator William Proxmire (D-Wis), the nemesis of Lockheed and its chairman, Daniel J. Haughton. Following a fierce debate, Vice President Spiro T. Agnew cast a tie-breaking vote in favor of the measure. Lockheed finished paying off the $1.4 billion loan in 1977, along with about $112.22 million in loan guarantee fees.

Bribery scandals

The Lockheed bribery scandals were a series of illegal bribes and contributions made by Lockheed officials from the late 1950s to the 1970s. In late 1975 and early 1976, a sub-committee of the U.S. Senate led by Senator Frank Church concluded that members of the Lockheed board had paid members of friendly governments to guarantee contracts for military aircraft. In 1976, it was publicly revealed that Lockheed had paid $22 million in bribes to foreign officials in the process of negotiating the sale of aircraft including the F-104 Starfighter, the so-called "Deal of the Century".

The scandal caused considerable political controversy in West Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Japan. In the US, the scandal led to passage of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and nearly led to the ailing corporation's downfall (it was already struggling due to the poor sales of the L-1011 airliner). Haughton resigned his post as chairman

Timeline

1912: The Alco Hydro-Aeroplane Company established.

1916: Company renamed Loughead Aircraft Manufacturing Company.

1926: Lockheed Aircraft Company formed.

1929: Lockheed becomes a division of Detroit Aircraft.

1932: Robert and Courtland Gross take control of company after the bankruptcy of Detroit Aircraft. Company renamed Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, recognizing the company's reorganization under a board of directors.

1943: Lockheed's Skunk Works founded in Burbank, California.

1954: First flight of the C-130 Hercules.

1954: Maiden flight of the U-2.

1961: Grand Central Rocket Company acquired as Lockheed Propulsion Company.

1962: First flight of the A-12 Blackbird.

1964: First flight of the SR-71 Blackbird.

1970 First flight of the L-1011 TriStar.

1976: The Lockheed bribery scandals.

1977: Company renamed Lockheed Corporation, to reflect non-aviation activities of the company.

1978: The company's Hollywood-Burbank Airport is sold to its nearby cities and becomes Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport (later renamed Bob Hope Airport in 2003).

1981: First flight of the F-117 Nighthawk.

1985: Acquires Metier Management Systems.

1986: Acquires Sanders Associates electronics of Nashua, New Hampshire.

1991: Lockheed, General Dynamics and Boeing begin development of the F-22 Raptor.

1992: All aerospace related activities end at the Burbank facility.

1993: Acquires General Dynamics' Fort Worth aircraft division, builder of the F-16 Fighting Falcon.

1995: Lockheed Corporation merges with Martin Marietta to form Lockheed Martin.

Divisions

Lockheed's operations were divided between several groups and divisions, many of which continue to operate within Lockheed Martin.

Aeronautical Systems Group

Lockheed-California Company (CALAC), Burbank, California.

Lockheed-Georgia Company (GELAC), Marietta, Georgia.

Lockheed Advanced Aeronautics Company, Saugus, California.

Lockheed Aircraft Service Company (LAS), Ontario, California.

Lockheed Air Terminal, Inc. (LAT), Burbank, California, now Bob Hope Airport and owned by the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority.

Missiles, Space, and Electronics Systems Group

Lockheed Missiles & Space Company, Inc., Sunnyvale, California.

Lockheed Propulsion Company, Redlands, California.

Lockheed Space Operations Company, Titusville, Florida.

Lockheed Engineering and Management Services Company, Inc., Houston, Texas.

Lockheed Electronics Company, Inc., Plainfield, New Jersey.

Marine Systems Group

Lockheed Shipbuilding Company, Seattle, Washington.

Lockport Marine Company, Portland, Oregon.

Advanced Marine Systems, Santa Clara, California.

Information Systems Group

Datacom Systems Corporation, Teaneck, New Jersey.

CADAM Inc., Burbank, California.

Lockheed Data Plan, Inc., Los Gatos, California.

DIALOG Information Services, Inc, Palo Alto, California.

Metier Management Systems, London, England.

Integrated Systems and Solutions, Gaithersburg, MD.

Product list

A partial listing of aircraft and other vehicles produced by Lockheed.

Airliners and civil transports

Lockheed Vega

Lockheed Model 10 Electra

Lockheed Model 12 Electra Junior

Lockheed Model 14 Super Electra

Lockheed Lodestar

Lockheed Constellation, famous airliner

Lockheed L-1649A Starliner, last model of the Lockheed Constellation

Lockheed Saturn

L-188 Electra

Lockheed JetStar, business jet

L-1011 TriStar, wide-body airliner

Military transports

C-69/C-121, military transport versions of the Constellation

Lockheed R6V Constitution, large transport aircraft

C-130 Hercules, medium combat transport (AC-130 gunship) (other variants)

C-141 Starlifter, long-range jet transport

C-5 Galaxy, heavy transport

Fighters

P-38 Lightning, twin-engine propeller fighter

P-80 Shooting Star, the United States Air Force's first operational jet fighter

T-33 Shooting Star, trainer jet

F-94 Starfire, all-weather fighter

F-104 Starfighter, multi-mission fighter, the "missile with a man in it"

F-117 Nighthawk, "stealth fighter" attack aircraft

F-16 Fighting Falcon, multirole fighter (Originally General Dynamics)

F-22 Raptor, air superiority stealth fighter

Patrol and reconnaissance

Lockheed Hudson, maritime patrol/bomber

PV-1 Ventura and PV-2 Harpoon, Maritime patrol/bomber

P-2 Neptune, maritime patrol

P-3 Orion, ASW patrol

Lockheed U-2, reconnaissance (TR-1)

SR-71 Blackbird, reconnaissance (A-12) (M-21) (YF-12)

S-3 Viking, patrol/attack

YO-3A Quiet Star

Helicopters

CL-475, rigid-rotor helicopter

XH-51A/B (Lockheed CL-595/Model 286), compound helicopter testbed

AH-56 Cheyenne, prototype attack compound helicopter

Missiles

Polaris

Poseidon

Trident

Space technology

X-7

X-17

L-301

Corona

Agena

Apollo Launch Escape System

Hubble Space Telescope

Sea vessels

''Sea Shadow''

See also

Martin Marietta

Skunk Works

Vega Aircraft Corporation

References

;Notes

Bibliography

Boyne, Walter J. ''Beyond the Horizons: The Lockheed Story.'' New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998. ISBN 0-312-19237-1.

Allen, Richard Sanders. ''Revolution In The Sky.'' Brattleboro, VT: The Stephen Greene Press, 1964. LOC 63-20452.

External links

Allan and Malcolm Loughead (Lockheed) Their Early Lives in the Santa Cruz Mountains

Lockheed Brothers from PBS

The Jetmakers

Kakuei Tanaka - A political biography of modern Japan: "Chapter 4 The Lockheed Scandal" (The Kodama organization, a Yakuza gang, got mixed up in this scandal.)

Lockheed history on lockheedmartin.com

Camouflaged plant during WW II

Category:Companies established in 1912 Category:Companies disestablished in 1995 Category:Defunct aircraft manufacturers of the United States Category:Lockheed Martin Category:Burbank, California Category:Defunct companies in the Greater Los Angeles Area

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Benjamin Robert Rich (June 18, 1925 – January 5, 1995) was the second director of Lockheed's Skunk Works from 1975 to 1991, succeeding its founder, Kelly Johnson. Regarded as the "father of stealth," Ben Rich was responsible for leading the development of the F-117, the first production stealth aircraft. He also worked on the F-104, U-2, SR-71, A-12, and F-22 among others.

Early in life

Rich was born in Manila in the Philippines, one of the five children of British lumber mill superintendent Isidore Rich and his French wife, Annie, the daughter of one of his paternal grandfather's Jewish customers who resided in Alexandria, Egypt. The Rich family was one of the first Jewish families to settle in Manila. Having fled the Philippines just weeks before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, they moved to the United States in 1942, where Ben Rich became a naturalized US citizen. He worked (with his father) in a Los Angeles, California machine shop during World War II, and studied at the city's Hamilton High School. After the war he started his college education when he was 21, majoring in mechanical engineering at UC Berkeley, followed by a master's degree in aeronautical engineering at UCLA, instead of in the medical field as he originally planned.

Lockheed

Upon graduation Rich was hired by Lockheed as a theromodynamicist. There he worked on a variety of projects - he was awarded a patent for designing a nichrome heating system which prevented Navy patrol plane crew's penises from freezing to their urine elimination pipes. He designed inlet ducts for the F-104 Starfighter, the C-130 transport aircraft, and the F-90 fighter.

The Skunk Works

In December 1954 Rich was seconded to the Skunk Works, the secret research and development section run by Lockheed's chief engineer Clarence "Kelly" Johnson. There he designed the inlet ducts for the U-2 spy plane. Then he led the effort to build large-scale hydrogen liquefaction plant for a proposed hydrogen-powered supersonic aircraft, codenamed ''Suntan''. After this was canceled when hydrogen proved to be impractical, Rich was program manager for the propulsion systems for the U-2's successor, the SR-71 Blackbird. The idea to paint the high-speed aircraft's skin black, to help dissipate the tremendous frictional heat, was Rich's. He designed the engine inlet cones, the air conditioning system, and was the chief thermodynamicist for the project.

Later, as Johnson's successor as leader of the Skunk Works, Rich championed the early prototypes of stealth technology and led the development of the F-117 stealth fighter.

Awards

A member of the National Academy of Engineering, he won numerous awards during his career, including the Collier Trophy. In 2005 he was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame.

Family

In 1950, he married the former Faye Mayer, a fashion model, who died in 1980. In 1982, he married Hilda Elliot. He died of cancer in Ventura, California, on January 5, 1995. His son, Michael, is an executive with the RAND Corporation and his daughter, Karen, is a botanist.

Selected aircraft

F-104 Starfighter. Single-engine, high-performance, supersonic interceptor aircraft.

XF-90. Experimental fighter / bomber escort aircraft.

U-2 "Dragon Lady". Reconnaissance aircraft. A high altitude jet aircraft used by the CIA and the US Air Force during the cold war.

SR-71 "Blackbird". An advanced, long-range, Mach 3.2 strategic reconnaissance aircraft. The Blackbird was designed to provide reconnaissance in defended airspace while improving aircrew survivability. In the Blackbird, mission success and survivability depended on aircraft speed. Ben Rich was responsible for engineering the spikes and engine inlet systems which made the Blackbirds the fastest jet aircraft in the world.

F-117 Nighthawk. World's first production stealth aircraft.

YF-22, prototype of the F-22 Raptor.

References

Rich, Ben; Janos, Leo. (1996) ''Skunk Works''. Little, Brown & Company, ISBN 0-316-74300-3

F-117a.com biography of Ben Rich

Rich's biography in the National Aviation Hall of Fame

Category:1925 births Category:1995 deaths Category:Filipino emigrants to the United States Category:Lockheed people Category:Collier Trophy recipients Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States Category:National Aviation Hall of Fame inductees Category:People from Manila

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