TRW Inc., or Thompson Ramo Wooldridge Inc., was an American corporation involved in a variety of businesses, mainly aerospace, electronics, automotive, and credit reporting. The company was founded in 1901 and lasted for just over a century until being acquired by Northrop Grumman in 2002. It spawned a variety of corporations, including Pacific Semiconductors, The Aerospace Corporation, Bunker-Ramo and Experian. TRW was instrumental in the development of American spacecraft during the Space Race, including Pioneer 1, Pioneer 10, and Apollo. TRW also played a significant role in the defense industry, leading the development of the United States' first ICBM and later the Titan missile. The corporation was listed as #57 on the 1986 Fortune 500 list, and had 122,258 employees in 2000.
History TRW originated in 1901 as the Cleveland Cap Screw Company, founded by David Kurtz and four other Cleveland residents. Their initial products were bolts with heads electrically welded to the shafts. In 1904, a welder named Charles E. Thompson adapted their process to making automobile engine valves, and by 1915, the company had grown to become the largest valve producer in the United States. Charles Thompson was named general manager of the company, which became Thompson Products in 1926. Their experimental hollow sodium-cooled valves aided Charles Lindbergh's solo flight across the Atlantic. In 1937, Thompson Motor Products bought J.A. Drake and Sons (JADSON). The company made high-performance valves that were used in many racing engines, including the Miller Offy. Dale Drake (son of J.A. Drake) bought the Offy engine design with his partner Louis Meyer in 1946 and won the Indianapolis 500 twenty-seven times, more than any other engine design. During the period leading up to World War II and through the end of the Korean War, Thompson Products was a key manufacturer of components for aircraft engines, including cylinder valves. The TAPCO plant, owned by the federal government but operated by Thompson Products, extended for almost a mile along Cleveland's Euclid Avenue and employed over 16,000 workers at its peak. As jet aircraft replaced piston-engined aircraft, Thompson Products then shifted to becoming a major manufacturer of turbine blades for jet engines. In 1950, Simon Ramo and Dean Wooldridge while working for Hughes Aircraft, led the development of the Falcon radar-guided missile, among other projects. Growing frustrated with Howard Hughes' management, the two formed the Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation in September 1953, with the financial support of Thompson Products. The detonation of a thermonuclear bomb by the Soviet Union spurred Trevor Gardner to form the Teapot Committee in October 1953. Chaired by John von Neumann, its purpose was to study the development of ballistic missiles, including ICBMs. Ramo and Wooldridge were committee members, and Ramo-Wooldridge Corp. became the lead contractor of the resulting ICBM development effort, reporting to the United States Air Force. With continued backing from Thompson Products, Ramo-Wooldridge diversified into computers and electronic components, founding Pacific Semiconductors in 1954. They also produced scientific spacecraft such as Pioneer 1, and was later contracted to work on the Apollo program. Thompson Products and Ramo-Wooldridge merged in October 1958 to form Thompson Ramo Wooldridge Inc., unofficially known as "TRW". In February 1959, Jimmy Doolittle became chairman of the board of Space Technology Laboratories (STL), the division which continued to support the Air Force ICBM efforts. Other aerospace companies believed TRW's Air Force advisory role granted it unfair access to their technologies and in September 1959, Congress issued a report recommending that STL be converted to a non-profit organization. With nearly half of STL's employees, The Aerospace Corporation was formed in June 1960. It headed the Atlas conversion for Mercury, Titan conversion for Gemini, and provided ongoing systems engineering support for the government. The Air Force continued its ICBM work with TRW. Dean Wooldridge retired in January 1962 to become a professor at California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Simon Ramo became president of the Bunker-Ramo Corporation in January 1964, jointly owned by TRW and Martin Marietta for the production of computers and monitors. Thompson Ramo Wooldridge officially became TRW Inc. in July 1965. Free of anti-competitive restrictions short of ICBM hardware, STL was renamed TRW Systems Group that same month. In 1968, the company entered the credit reporting industry by purchasing Credit Data Corporation and renaming it TRW Information Systems and Services Inc. The Credit Data group was formed in 1970 to compete with Dun & Bradstreet, from the combination of TRWISS and ESL Incorporated to specialize in technical strategic reconnaissance. TRW Information Systems and Services Division (Credit Data) was spun off in 1996 to form Experian. TRW acquired LucasVarity in 1999, then selling Lucas Diesel Systems to Delphi Automotive and Lucas Aerospace (then called TRW Aeronautical Systems) to Goodrich Corporation.
Decline and acquisition Toward the end of the 1980s, the company experienced a significant turndown in its defense operations following the end of the Cold War as defense spending leveled off, but continued to maintain a stable stance in the market. On 3 February 1986, a large TRW plant in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, burned to the ground in a nine-alarm fire. The fire was listed as one of the worst in the city's history, and a state of emergency was declared due to a leakage of toxic fumes. In February 2002, Northrop Grumman launched a $5.9 billion hostile bid for TRW. Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems, and General Dynamics all contended for the company with Northrop's increased bid of $7.8 billion, which was ultimately accepted on July 1, 2002. Soon afterward, the automotive assets of LucasVarity and TRW's automotive group were sold to The Blackstone Group as TRW Automotive. A portion of TRW's Lyndhurst campus was developed as Legacy Village, and the headquarters building became home to the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute. The TRW headquarters building was demolished in 2023. In 2011, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) designated the TRW Space Park complex in Redondo Beach, California as a historic aerospace site.
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