 | |
| Industry | Aerospace |
|---|---|
| Founded | April 14, 1927; 98 years ago (1927-04-14) |
| Founders | Allan Lockheed Malcolm Lockheed |
| Defunct | 1995 (1995) |
| Fate | Merged withMartin Marietta |
| Successor | Lockheed Martin |
| Headquarters | , United States |
Key people | |
Number of employees | 90,000[2] |
TheLockheed Corporation was an Americanaerospace manufacturer. Lockheed was founded in 1926 and merged in 1995 withMartin Marietta to formLockheed Martin. Its founder,Allan Lockheed, had earlier founded the similarly named but otherwise-unrelatedLoughead Aircraft Manufacturing Company, which was operational from 1912 to 1920.
Allan Loughead and his brotherMalcolm Loughead had operated an earlier aircraft company,Loughead Aircraft Manufacturing Company, which was operational from 1912 to 1920.[3] The company built and operated aircraft for paying passengers on sightseeing tours inCalifornia and had developed a prototype for the civil market, but folded in 1920 due to the flood of surplus aircraft deflating the market afterWorld War I. Allan went into the real estate market while Malcolm had meanwhile formed a successful company marketing brake systems for automobiles.[4]
On December 13, 1926, Allan Loughead,John Northrop, Kenneth Kay and Fred Keeler secured funding to form theLockheed Aircraft Company (spelled phonetically to prevent mispronunciation) in Hollywood.[5] This new company used some of the same technology originally developed for theModel S-1 to design theVega Model. In March 1928, the company relocated toBurbank, California, and by year's end reported sales exceeding one million dollars. From 1926 to 1928 the company produced over 80 aircraft and employed more than 300 workers who by April 1929 were building five aircraft per week. In July 1929, majority shareholder Fred Keeler sold 87% of the Lockheed Aircraft Company toDetroit Aircraft Corporation. In August 1929, Allan Loughead resigned.[6]
TheGreat Depression ruined the aircraft market, and Detroit Aircraft went bankrupt. A group of investors headed by brothers Robert and Courtland Gross, andWalter Varney, bought the company out of receivership in 1932. The syndicate bought the company for a mere $40,000 ($858,000 in 2023). Ironically, Allan Loughead himself had planned to bid for his own company, but had raised only $50,000 ($824,000), which he felt was too small a sum for a serious bid.[7]
In 1934,Robert E. Gross was named chairman of the new company, the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, which was headquartered at what is now theairport inBurbank, California. His brotherCourtlandt S. Gross was a co-founder and executive, succeeding Robert as chairman following his death in 1961. The company was named the Lockheed Corporation in 1977.
The first successful construction that was built in any number (141 aircraft) was theVega first built in 1927, best known for its several first- and record-setting flights by, among others,Amelia Earhart,Wiley Post, andGeorge Hubert Wilkins. In the 1930s, Lockheed spent $139,400 ($2.29 million) to develop theModel 10 Electra, a small twin-engined transport. The company sold 40 in the first year of production. Amelia Earhart and her navigator,Fred Noonan, flew it in their failed attempt to circumnavigate the world in 1937. Subsequent designs, theLockheed Model 12 Electra Junior and theLockheed Model 14 Super Electra expanded their market.[citation needed]
The Lockheed Model 14 formed the basis for theHudson bomber, which was supplied to both the British Royal Air Force and the United States military before and duringWorld War II.[8][9] 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 theImperial Japanese Army.[10]
At the beginning of World War II, Lockheed – under the guidance ofClarence (Kelly) Johnson, who is considered one of the best-known American aircraft designers – answered a specification for an interceptor by submitting theP-38 Lightning fighter aircraft, a twin-engined,twin-boom design. The P-38 was the only American fighter aircraft in production throughout the entirety of American involvement in the war, fromPearl Harbor toVictory over Japan Day.[11] It filled ground-attack, air-to-air, and even tactical 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 otherU.S. Army Air Forces type during the war; it is particularly famous for being the aircraft type that shot down JapaneseAdmiral Isoroku Yamamoto's airplane.[12][13]
The Lockheed Vega factory was located next to Burbank'sUnion Airport which it had purchased in 1940. During the war, the entire area was camouflaged in case of enemy reconnaissance. The factory was hidden beneath a huge burlap tarpaulin painted to depict a peaceful semi-rural neighborhood, replete with rubber automobiles.[15][16] 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.[12][17]
Lockheed ranked tenth among United States corporations in the value of wartime production contracts.[18] All told, Lockheed and its subsidiaryVega produced 19,278 aircraft during World War II, representing six percent of war production, including 2,600Venturas, 2,750Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers (built under license fromBoeing), 2,900 Hudson bombers, and 9,000 Lightnings.[19]
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During World War II, Lockheed, in cooperation withTrans-World Airlines (TWA), had developed theL-049 Constellation, a radical new airliner capable of flying 43 passengers between New York and London at a speed of 300 mph (480 km/h) in 13 hours.
Once the Constellation (nicknamedConnie) went into production, the military received the first production models; after the war, the airlines received their original orders, giving Lockheed more than a year's head-start over other aircraft manufacturers in what was easily foreseen as the post-war modernization of civilian air travel. The Constellation's 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-deckedR6V Constitution, which was intended to make the Constellation obsolete. However, the design proved underpowered.
The company sought to purchaseConvair in 1946, but the sale was blocked by theSEC.[20][21]
In 1939 when Lockheed was expanding rapidly with war work, theP-38 Lightning prototype construction project was moved to a newly purchased distillery building, the secret project off-limits to all but a core group of engineers. This tight-knit group, led byKelly Johnson, acted on their own initiative to incorporate advanced technology into the YP-38 prototype. As a result, it was the first fighter airplane to fly 400 mph (644 kph). Many of these engineers moved with Johnson from the smelly former distillery to theP-80 Shooting Star project.[22] Johnson said in 1964 that the YP-38 was the inception of the Skunk Works concept.[23]
In 1943, Lockheed began, in secrecy, development of a new jet fighter at its Burbank facility. This fighter, the P-80, became the first American jet fighter to score a kill. It also recorded the first jet-to-jet aerial kill, downing aMikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 in Korea, although by this time the F-80 (as it was redesignated in June 1948) was already considered obsolete.[24]
Starting with the P-80, Lockheed's secret development work was conducted by its Advanced Development Division, more commonly known as theSkunk Works. The name was taken fromAl Capp's comic stripLi'l Abner. This organization has become famous and spawned many successful Lockheed designs, including the U-2 (late 1950s), SR-71 Blackbird (1962) and F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter (1978). The Skunk Works often created high-quality designs in a short time and sometimes with limited resources.
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In 1954, theLockheed C-130 Hercules, a durable four-engined transport, flew for the first time. This type remains in production today. In 1956, Lockheed received a contract for the development of thePolaris Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile (SLBM); it would be followed by the Poseidon and Trident nuclear missiles. Lockheed developed theF-104 Starfighter in the late 1950s, the world's first Mach 2 fighter jet. In the early 1960s, the company introduced theC-141 Starlifter four-engine jet transport.
During the 1960s, Lockheed began development for two large aircraft: theC-5 Galaxy military transport and theL-1011 TriStarwide-body civil airliner. Both projects encountered delays and cost overruns. The C-5 was built to vague 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 theMcDonnell Douglas DC-10; delays inRolls-Royce engine development caused the TriStar to fall behind the DC-10. The C-5 and L-1011 projects, the canceled U.S. ArmyAH-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. Lockheed argued that a government bailout was necessary due to the company's value for U.S. national security.[25] On May 13, 1971, theRichard Nixon administration sent a bill titled "The Emergency Loan Guarantee Act" to Congress requesting a $250 million loan guarantee for Lockheed and itsL-1011 Tristar airbus program.[26] The measure was hotly debated in the US Senate. The chief antagonist was SenatorWilliam Proxmire (D-Wis), the nemesis of Lockheed and its chairman, Daniel J. Haughton.[25] Some of the debate in Congress developed over what conditions should be attached to the bailout. SenatorAlan Cranston demanded that the management be forced to step down, lest it set a precedent rewarding wasteful spending. Others argued that the company should be allowed to go into bankruptcy citing the recent decision to leavePenn Central railroad to that fate, and the fact that the airbus program at issue was commercial rather than military.[26]
Naval scholar Thomas Paul Stanton notes that the opposition to the bill held it was "the beginning of the socialization of the American aircraft and aerospace industry."[27] Proponents responded by claiming "this socializing process had taken place many years before", and some witnesses before Congress discounted "the very notion of 'free enterprise'."[27]Treasury Secretary Connally pointed to the faltering economy and worries about unemployment while testifying "the time has come within the United States when we have to look at things differently. Free enterprise is just not all that free."[27] Questions arose whether letting Lockheed fail would be bad for the market due to decreased competition or good by screening out inefficient competitors and mismanagement.[27] Lockheed's competitors, McDonnell Douglas and General Electric (collaborators on theDC-10) strongly opposed the bill and they feared the government would steer contracts to Lockheed to insure loan payments.[27] AdmiralHyman G. Rickover condemned the bill saying it represented "a new philosophy where we privatize profits and socialize losses."[27] The New York Times editorial board held that the Nixon administration was violating its own free enterprise principles by advocating for the loan.[26] (Later, historianStephen J. Whitfield viewed the passage of the loan guarantee as a support for the argument that America was shifting away fromLockean liberalism.[28])
Following a fierce debate, Vice PresidentSpiro T. Agnew cast a tie-breaking vote in favor of the measure on August 2, 1971. President Nixon signed the bill into law on August 9, 1971 - which became colloquially known as the "Lockheed Loan". Even after its adoption, a further controversy developed when the Emergency Loan Guarantee Board set up by the Executive branch to oversee the loan refused to allow Congress' General Accounting Office to examine its records. They argued that the office was attempting "interference in the decision-making process" amounting to an effort to "bully" and "harass" the board. This claim was denied by Comptroller GeneralElmer B. Staats, and efforts were made by SenatorWilliam Proxmire to get Treasury SecretaryJohn Connally to testify due to the suspicion that the loan guarantee was in jeopardy. The editorial board ofThe New York Times blasted the situation, citing it as another argument against the propriety of the loan guarantee and the precedent it set for other failing companies.[29] The debate around the ramifications of the Lockheed loan guarantee soon resurfaced in late 1975 with discussions on possible aid toNew York City during its fiscal crisis.[27]
Lockheed finished paying off the $1.4 billion loan in 1977, along with about $112.22 million in loan guarantee fees.[30]
The Lockheed bribery scandals were a series of illegalbribes and contributions made by Lockheed officials from the late 1950s to the 1970s. In late 1975 and early 1976, a subcommittee of theU.S. Senate led by SenatorFrank Church concluded that members of the Lockheed board had paid members of friendly governments to guarantee contracts for military aircraft.[31] In 1976, it was publicly revealed that Lockheed had paid $22 million in bribes to foreign officials[32] in the process of negotiating the sale of aircraft including theF-104 Starfighter, the so-called Deal of the Century.[33]
The scandal caused considerable political controversy inWest Germany, theNetherlands,Italy, andJapan. In the US, the scandal led to passage of theForeign Corrupt Practices Act, and nearly led to the ailing corporation's downfall (it was already struggling due to the poor sales of theL-1011 airliner). Haughton resigned his post as chairman.[34]
In the late 1980s,leveraged buyout specialistHarold Simmons conducted a widely publicized but unsuccessful takeover attempt on the Lockheed Corporation, having gradually acquired almost 20 percent of its stock. Lockheed was attractive to Simmons because one of its primary investors was theCalifornia Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), the pension fund of the state of California. At the time, theNew York Times said, "Much of Mr. Simmons's interest in Lockheed is believed to stem from its pension plan, which is over funded by more than $1.4 billion. Analysts said he might want to liquidate the plan and pay out the excess funds to shareholders, including himself." Citing the mismanagement by its chairman,Daniel M. Tellep, Simmons stated a wish to replace its board with a slate of his own choosing, since he was the largest investor. His board nominations included former Texas SenatorJohn Tower, the onetime chairman of theArmed Services Committee, and AdmiralElmo Zumwalt Jr., a former Chief of Naval Operations.[35][36] Simmons had first begun accumulating Lockheed stock in early 1989 when deep Pentagon cuts to the defense budget had driven down prices of military contractor stocks, and analysts had not believed he would attempt the takeover since he was also at the time pursuing control ofGeorgia Gulf.[37]
Merger talks between Lockheed andMartin Marietta began in March 1994, with the companies announcing their $10 billion planned merger on August 30, 1994. The headquarters for the combined companies would be at Martin Marietta headquarters inNorth Bethesda, Maryland.[38] The deal was finalized on March 15, 1995, when the two companies' shareholders approved the merger.[39] The segments of the two companies not retained by the new company formed the basis forL-3 Communications, a mid-size defense contractor in its own right. Lockheed Martin also later spun off the materials companyMartin Marietta Materials.
The company's executives received large bonuses directly from the government as a result of the merger.Norman R. Augustine who was at the time CEO of Martin Marietta received an $8.2 million bonus.[40]
Both companies contributed important products to the new portfolio. Lockheed products included theTrident missile,P-3 Orionmaritime patrol aircraft,U-2 andSR-71reconnaissance airplanes,F-117 Nighthawk,F-16 Fighting Falcon,F-22 Raptor,C-130 Hercules,A-4AR Fightinghawk and the DSCS-3 satellite. Martin Marietta products includedTitan rockets,Sandia National Laboratories (management contract acquired in 1993),Space Shuttle External Tank,Viking 1 andViking 2 landers, the Transfer Orbit Stage (under subcontract toOrbital Sciences Corporation) and various satellite models.
In 1984 Lockheed's operations were divided between several groups and divisions, many of which continue to operate within Lockheed[44]
A partial listing of aircraft and other vehicles produced by Lockheed.
He calls his development plants 'skunk works'. There have been five of them – the first, an abandoned distillery.
{{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal= (help){{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal= (help)... was sold & renamed repeatedly over it's [sic] 40+ years:
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