NORTHROP GRUMMAN CORPORATION

formerly (193958) Northrop Aircraft, Inc., or (195894) Northrop Corporation American aerospace company that produces military aircraft, guidance and navigation systems, electronic countermeasure and surveillance systems, and precision-guided munitions. Its headquarters are in Los Angeles. The company was founded in Hawthorne, Calif., in 1939, by John K. Northrop, a pioneer aeronautical engineer. During World War II he designed the P-61 Black Widow, the first night interceptor. Under the leadership of Thomas V. Jones, who became president in 1959, the Northrop Corporation diversified as a maker of various missile and aircraft systems and parts. In the 1950s the company developed the N-156, a lightweight, supersonic jet fighter built for simple maintenance. As the T-38 Talon, it became a standard air force trainer, and in its F-5 Freedom Fighter and F-5E Tiger II versions it was sold around the world. Northrop also made the F-89 interceptor and the Snark missile system. In the 1970s it helped develop the F/A-18 jet fighter in conjunction with McDonnell Douglas. Northrop also became a major supplier of guidance systems for tactical and strategic missiles. In the 1980s it developed the B-2 stealth bomber. In 1994 Northrop purchased the Grumman Corporation, another major American defense contractor. That company had been founded by Leroy Randle Grumman in 1929 and had specialized in military aircraft. Grumman's chief products during the Cold War were the A-6 attack aircraft, the F-14 carrier-based fighter jet, and the E-2C Hawkeye early-warning aircraft. By the time it was purchased by Northrop in 1994, Grumman had reoriented its business toward battlefield surveillance and electronics systems.