Litton Industries Military Companies |
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Litton Industries came into existence at the same time the United States military was discovering the many advantages of technology in the waging of war. Littons earliest contributions were in the first years of World War II; though the United States was not involved in the war officially, Charles Litton and many other American engineers traveled to England to help develop anti-aircraft detection and weaponry systems. Without Litton Industries and other American scientists at this time, it is likedly that Germany would have been successful in bombing England into submission. The critical development at this time was the magnetron, a specialized type of electron tube related to Littons vacuum tubes. This device could generate short bursts of high-intensity energy, which was useful for radar applications. Littons major contribution was in the mass-production of magnetrons, which he had of course already done with vacuum tubes. Between the development and mass production, advanced radar capable of detecting aerial attacks and submarines was soon installed in planes, naval vessels, and ground control units throughout the Allied forces. By the end of World War II, Litton Industries held excellent defense contracts for their inventions and great connections for the development of even more defense contracts. But Litton Industries soon had an advantage over and above its inventions. Tex Thornton bought the company out in 1953. He brought incredible connections and his own private managerial genius to the company. Thornton had been an ordinary government bureaucrat in the 1930s, finding a great deal of frustration in the extreme lack of organization he found there. But he was discovered by the assistant Secretary of War shortly prior to World War II, and was pulled into the war department to apply his special skills toward the war effort that was starting prior to Pearl Harbor. Through the buildup to the war and then throughout the war years, Thornton proved himself to be a genius with efficiency and finding ways to move military equipment and supplies. More importantly to his later career, he also trained thousands of procurement agents in his methods for handling equipment and materials. After the war, Thornton found work with the Ford Motor Company and Howard Hughes companies, but he never lost touch with his military contacts. This paid off handsomely when he purchased Litton Industries in 1953. His connections and business acumen combined with Littons great technological resources enabled him to make the company into a military industrial powerhouse. Even though he lost control of Litton Industries about ten years later, his military impact continued throughout the life of the company. Litton built advanced naval vessels and retrofitted others in its shipyards, created new radar and sonar equipment for the Navy and Air Force, and even worked with NASA to develop guidance systems for spaceships and airtight spacesuits for astronauts. From being a mass manufacturer of radio vacuum tubes, Litton Industry grew into a company dealing with aerospace technologies, navigation and guidance equipment, information technology equipment, and electronic warfare systems, including the increasingly important guided missile systems. Northrop Grummans purchase of Litton Industries put the combined companies at the top of the military-industrial heap. |
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