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| Industry |
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|---|---|
| Founded | 1910; 115 years ago (1910) inDowntown Brooklyn, New York City, U.S. |
| Founder | Elmer Ambrose Sperry |
| Defunct | September 16, 1986 (1986-09-16) |
| Fate | Merged withBurroughs Corporation |
| Successor | Unisys |
| Headquarters | , U.S |
Key people |
|
| Parent | North American Aviation (1929–1933) |
| Subsidiaries | Aircraft Radio Corporation |
Sperry Corporation was a major American equipment andelectronics company whose existence spanned more than seven decades of the 20th century. Sperry ceased to exist in 1986 following a prolongedhostile takeover bid engineered byBurroughs Corporation, which merged the combined operation under the new nameUnisys. Some of Sperry's former divisions became part ofHoneywell,Lockheed Martin,Raytheon Technologies, andNorthrop Grumman.
The company is best known as the developer of theartificial horizon and a wide variety of othergyroscope-based aviation instruments likeautopilots,bombsights,analog ballistics computers andgyro gunsights. In the post-WWII era the company branched out into electronics, both aviation-related, and later, computers.
The company was founded byElmer Ambrose Sperry.
The company was incorporated on April 14 1910[2] by Elmer Ambrose Sperry as theSperry Gyroscope Company, to manufacture navigation equipment—chiefly his own inventions: the marinegyrostabilizer and thegyrocompass—at 40 Flatbush Avenue Extension inDowntown Brooklyn.[3] DuringWorld War I the company diversified into aircraft components includingbomb sights andfire control systems. In their early decades, Sperry Gyroscope and related companies were concentrated onLong Island, New York, especially inNassau County. Over the years, it diversified to other locations.
In 1918,Lawrence Sperry split from his father to compete over aero-instruments with theLawrence Sperry Aircraft Company, including the newautomatic pilot. After the death of Lawrence on December 13, 1923, the two firms were brought together in 1924. Then in January 1929 it was acquired byNorth American Aviation,[4] who reincorporated it in New York as theSperry Gyroscope Company, Inc. The company once again became independent in 1933 when it was spun-off as a subsidiary of the newly formedSperry Corporation.[2][5] The new corporation was a holding company for a number of smaller entities such as the original Sperry Gyroscope,Ford Instrument Company,Intercontinental Aviation, Inc., and others. The company made advanced aircraft navigation equipment for the market, including the Sperry Gyroscope and the Sperry Radio Direction Finder. It also moved into the hydraulics industry when it acquired Vickers, Inc. in 1937.[6] Sperry supported the work of a group ofStanford University inventors, led byRussell and Sigurd Varian, who had invented theklystron, and incorporated this technology and related inventions into their products.[7]
The company prospered duringWorld War II as military demand skyrocketed, ranking 19th among US corporations in the value of wartime production contracts.[8] It specialized in high technology devices such asanalog computer–controlled bomb sights,airborne radar systems, and automated take-off and landing systems. Sperry also was the creator of theBall Turret Gun mounted under theBoeing B-17 Flying Fortress and theConsolidated B-24 Liberator.
In 1944, Sperry sold the Brooklyn factory at 40 Flatbush Avenue Extension to the Howard clothing manufacturing company, which already had a smaller nearby factory.[9]
Postwar, Sperry expanded its interests in electronics and computing, producing the company's first digital computer,SPEEDAC, in 1953.
During the 1950s, a large part of Sperry Gyroscope moved toPhoenix, Arizona and soon became theSperry Flight Systems Company. This was to preserve parts of this defense company in the event of anuclear war. The Gyroscope division remained headquartered in New York—in its massiveLake Success, Long Island, plant (which also served as the temporaryUnited Nations headquarters from 1946 to 1952)—into the 1980s.
In 1955, Sperry acquiredRemington Rand and renamed itselfSperry Rand. Acquiring theEckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation andEngineering Research Associates along with Remington Rand, the company developed the successfulUNIVAC computer series and signed a valuable cross-licensing deal withIBM.[10] The company remained a major military contractor. From 1967 to 1973, the corporation was involved in an acrimoniousantitrust lawsuit withHoneywell, Inc. (seeHoneywell v. Sperry Rand).
In 1961, Sperry Rand was ranked 34th on theFortune 500 list of largest companies in the United States.[11]
In 1977, Sperry Rand purchasedVarian Data Machines so as to enter theminicomputer market. Varian would be renamed as the Sperry UNIVAC Minicomputer Operation, operating as part of the Sperry UNIVAC division.[12][13]
In 1978, Sperry Rand decided to concentrate on its computing interests, and sold a number of divisions including Remington Rand Systems, Remington Rand Machines, Ford Instrument Company andSperry Vickers. The company dropped "Rand" from its title and reverted toSperry Corporation.
At about the same time as the Remington Rand acquisition, Sperry Gyroscope decided to open a facility that would almost exclusively produce its marine instruments. After considerable searching and evaluation, a plant was built inCharlottesville, Virginia, and in 1956, Sperry Piedmont Division began producing marine navigation products. It was later renamedSperry Marine.
In the 1970s, Sperry Corporation was a traditional conglomerate headquartered in the Sperry Rand Building at 1290 Avenue of Americas in Manhattan, selling typewriters (Sperry Remington); office equipment, electronic digital computers for business and the military (Sperry Univac); construction and farm equipment (Sperry New Holland); avionics, such as gyroscopes, radars, air route traffic control equipment (Sperry Vickers/Sperry Flight Systems); and consumer products such as electric razors (Sperry Remington). In addition, Sperry Systems Management (headquartered in the original Sperry Gyroscope building in Lake Success) performed work on a number of US government defense contracts. Sperry also managed the operation from 1961 to 1975 of the largeLouisiana Army Ammunition Plant nearMinden. In January 1972, Sperry took over theRCA Spectra 70 line of electronic digital computers (architectural cousins to the IBMSystem/360). In 1983, Sperry sold Vickers toLibbey Owens Ford (later to be renamed TRINOVA Corporation and subsequently Aeroquip-Vickers). At the same time, it acquired theAircraft Radio Corporation fromCessna.[14]
On September 16, 1986, after the success of a secondhostile takeover bid engineered byBurroughs Corporation CEO and formerU.S. Secretary of the Treasury,Michael Blumenthal, Sperry Corporation merged with Burroughs Corporation.[15] The newly merged company was renamedUnisys Corporation—a portmanteau of "united", "information", and "systems," while also referencing Sperry's well-known previous UNIVAC computer branding.[16] The takeover came about even after Sperry used a "poison pill" in the form of a major share price hike to dissuade the hostile bid, the result of which caused Burroughs to borrow much more funding than was anticipated to complete the bid.
Certain internal divisions of Sperry were sold off after the merger, such asSperry New Holland (1986, toFord Motor Company, which in 1991 sold the Ford-New Holland line toFiat[17]) andSperry Marine (toTenneco, in 1987,[18] and is currently part ofNorthrop Grumman[19]). Also sold—toHoneywell—wasSperry Aerospace Group, whileSperry Defense Products Group was sold toLoral; those two units whose functions were originally at the heart of the venerable Sperry Gyroscope division.[20][failed verification][21][failed verification][22][failed verification] This group is now part ofLockheed Martin.
Sperry in Britain started with a factory inPimlico, London, in 1913, manufacturing gyroscopic compasses for theRoyal Navy. It became the Sperry Gyroscope Co Ltd in 1915. In 1923,Lawrence Sperry was killed in an air crash nearRye, Sussex. The company subsequently expanded to theGolden Mile,Brentford, in 1931,Stonehouse, Gloucestershire[23] in 1938, andBracknell in 1957.[24] By 1963, these sites employed some 3,500 people.[23] The Brentford site closed in 1967, with the expansion of Bracknell. Stonehouse closed around 1969. By 1969, the Sperry Gyroscope division of Sperry Rand Corporation employed around 2,500.[25]
The site of the Bracknell factory and development center (sold toBritish Aerospace in 1982) is commemorated by a 4.5-meter aluminum sculpture byPhilip Bentham,Sperry's New Symbolic Gyroscope (1967).[26]
In 1989, the Bracknell site was downsized and work was moved to the Sperry manufacturing site inPlymouth by then under theBritish Aerospace brand. State of the art, high technologyMEMS gyroscopes (together with other avionics equipment) are still made on the site today, although the company is now owned byUnited Technologies Corporation and is part ofUTC Aerospace Systems.
The name Sperry lives on in the companySperry Marine, headquartered inNew Malden, England. This company, formed in 1997, from three well-known brand names in the marine industry—Sperry Marine,Decca, and C. Plath—is now part ofNorthrop Grumman Corporation. It is a worldwide supplier of navigation, communication, information and automation systems for commercial marine and naval markets.
| Model name | First flight | Number built | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hewitt-Sperry Automatic Airplane | 1917 | 13 | Flying bomb |
| Sperry Land and Sea Triplane | 1918 | 2 | Single engine triplane reconnaissance airplane |
| Verville-Sperry M-1 Messenger | 1921 | 42 | Single engine biplane communication airplane |
| Verville-Sperry R-3 | 1922 | 3 | Single engine monoplane racing airplane |
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