History of Lockheed Martin

The history of the Lockheed Corporation begins with the two Loughead brothers, Allan and Malcolm, who started flying in 1913. Their father, John was a hardware store owner and truck farmer and their mother, Flora was a writer.

The brother became interested in aviation when their brother Victor who worked with automobile distribution company wrote a book about flying. They setup their own company, the Loughead Aircraft Manufacturing Company in Santa Barbara, California in 1916, working with Jack Northrop and others.

The company was soon renamed Lockheed in 1934 to avoid mispronunciation.

In 1932, a group of young men, headed by Robert E. Gross acquired the company.

The first model 10 Electra took off in 1934, and so did the company. For next 15 years civilian and military aircraft pouted off the assembly line with more than 20,000 Lockheed planes built for World War II.

During the second half of the 20th century, Lockheed continued to pioneer new advancements in aircraft and defense systems technologies.

Lockheed Martin was officially formed on 16 March 1995 by merging between Lockheed Corporation and Martin-Mariette. It is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland.

The new corporation emerges with strong product lines in the field of aeronautics and aerospace and has become the sole major competitor to the other giant of US aerospace, the Boeing Company.

On April 22, 1996, Lockheed Martin completed the acquisition of Loral Corporation’s defense electronics and system integration businesses for $9.1 billion, the deal having been announced in January.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have boosts in Lockheed Martin’s sales, due to major spending on Patriot missiles and other combat-related systems.
History of Lockheed Martin