Industry | Aerospace |
---|---|
Predecessors | |
Founded | 1916 |
Defunct | 1919 |
Fate | Reformed as Wright Aeronautical in 1919 |
Successor | Wright Aeronautical |
Headquarters | , |
Key people | |
Subsidiaries |
|
Footnotes /references [1] [2] |
Wright-Martin Aircraft Corporation was a short-lived aircraft manufacturing business venture between the Wright Company (after Orville Wright sold the Wright Company and divested himself from it) and Glenn L. Martin.
Company officials merged their respective organizations, the Wright Company and the Glenn L. Martin Company, in 1916.
The company continued and escalated the Wright brothers patent war with other aircraft manufacturers, until its resolution—under duress from the government, in 1917, at the start of U.S. involvement in World War I—by the cross-licensing agreement developed and managed through the Manufacturers Aircraft Association. [3]
A license-built version of the Hispano-Suiza 8 was manufactured by the company under the engineering leadership of Henry M. Crane. It was used by Vought VE-7, VE-8, Boeing NB-2, and Loening M-8.
By 1918, the company had a factory in Long Island City, New York. [4] Martin soon resigned, dissolving the Wright-Martin joint enterprise within a year. The company was renamed Wright Aeronautical in 1919, and shifted from manufacturing aircraft to manufacturing aircraft engines, developing the pivotal Wright Whirlwind engines which changed aviation dramatically. [3]
He continued development of his Glenn L. Martin Company, which remained a major aircraft manufacturer until the 1950s, when it also began developing rockets, missiles, and spacecraft. In 1961, the company merged with the American-Marietta Corporation to become industrial conglomerate (and continued aerospace manufacturer) Martin Marietta; it merged with Lockheed in 1995 to become today's Lockheed Martin, one of the United States' three remaining major large aircraft manufacturers (along with Boeing and Northrop Grumman). [5] [6]
Model name | First flight | Number built | Type |
---|---|---|---|
Wright-Martin Model R | 14 [7] | Single engine biplane reconnaissance airplane | |
Wright-Martin Model V | 1 [7] | Single engine biplane reconnaissance airplane | |
The Lockheed Corporation was an American aerospace manufacturer. Lockheed was founded in 1926 and merged in 1995 with Martin Marietta to form Lockheed Martin. Its founder, Allan Lockheed, had earlier founded the similarly named but otherwise-unrelated Loughead Aircraft Manufacturing Company, which was operational from 1912 to 1920.
Aerospace is a term used to collectively refer to the atmosphere and outer space. Aerospace activity is very diverse, with a multitude of commercial, industrial, and military applications. Aerospace engineering consists of aeronautics and astronautics. Aerospace organizations research, design, manufacture, operate, maintain, and repair both aircraft and spacecraft.
The Glenn L. Martin Company, also known as The Martin Company from 1917 to 1961, was an American aircraft and aerospace manufacturing company founded by aviation pioneer Glenn L. Martin. The Martin Company produced many important aircraft for the defense of the US and allies, especially during World War II and the Cold War. During the 1950s and '60s, the Martin Company moved from the aircraft industry into the guided missile, space exploration, and space utilization industries.
The Bell Aircraft Corporation was an American aircraft manufacturer, a builder of several types of fighter aircraft for World War II but most famous for the Bell X-1, the first supersonic aircraft, and for the development and production of many important civilian and military helicopters. Bell also developed the Reaction Control System for the Mercury Spacecraft, North American X-15, and Bell Rocket Belt. The company was purchased in 1960 by Textron, and lives on as Bell Textron.
The Curtiss-Wright Corporation is a manufacturer and services provider headquartered in Davidson, North Carolina, with factories and operations in and outside the United States. Created in 1929 from the consolidation of Curtiss, Wright, and various supplier companies, the company was immediately the country's largest aviation firm and built more than 142,000 aircraft engines for the U.S. military during World War II.
Glenn Hammond Curtiss was an American aviation and motorcycling pioneer, and a founder of the U.S. aircraft industry. He began his career as a bicycle racer and builder before moving on to motorcycles. As early as 1904, he began to manufacture engines for airships. In 1908, Curtiss joined the Aerial Experiment Association, a pioneering research group, founded by Alexander Graham Bell at Beinn Bhreagh, Nova Scotia, to build flying machines.
Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company (1909–1929) was an American aircraft manufacturer originally founded by Glenn Hammond Curtiss and Augustus Moore Herring in Hammondsport, New York. After significant commercial success in its first decades, it merged with the Wright Aeronautical to form Curtiss-Wright Corporation.
Wright Aeronautical (1919–1929) was an American aircraft manufacturer headquartered in Paterson, New Jersey. It was the successor corporation to Wright-Martin. It built aircraft and was a supplier of aircraft engines to other builders in the golden age of aviation. Wright engines were used by Amelia Earhart and Charles Lindbergh. In 1929, the company merged with Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Corporation to form Curtiss-Wright.
The Robert J. Collier Trophy is awarded annually for the greatest achievement in aeronautics or astronautics in America, with respect to improving the performance, efficiency, and safety of air or space vehicles, the value of which has been thoroughly demonstrated by actual use during the preceding year.
Donald Wills Douglas Sr. was an American aircraft industrialist and engineer.
Vought was the name of several related American aerospace firms. These have included, in the past, Lewis and Vought Corporation, Chance Vought, Vought-Sikorsky, LTV Aerospace, Vought Aircraft Companies, and Vought Aircraft Industries.
Frederick Brant Rentschler was an American aircraft engine designer, aviation engineer, industrialist, and the founder of Pratt & Whitney Aircraft. Rentschler created and manufactured many revolutionary aircraft engines, including those used in the aircraft of Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart and James Doolittle. He is also a co-founder of United Aircraft and Transport Corporation, the predecessor of United Technologies Corporation.
Glenn Luther Martin was an early American aviation pioneer. He designed and built his own aircraft and was an active pilot, as well as an aviation record-holder. He founded an aircraft company in 1912 which through several mergers amalgamated into what is today known as Lockheed Martin.
The Burgess Company was a U.S. airplane manufacturer between 1910 and 1918.
The aerospace industry of the United Kingdom is the second-largest national aerospace industry in the world and the largest in Europe by turnover, with a global market share of 17% in 2019. In 2020, the industry employed 116,000 people.
The Wright brothers patent war centers on the patent that the Wright brothers received for their method of airplane flight control. They were two Americans who are widely credited with inventing and building the world's first flyable airplane and making the first controlled, powered, and sustained heavier-than-air human flight on December 17, 1903.
The Manufacturer's Aircraft Association (MAA) was a trade association and patent pool of U.S. aircraft manufacturers formed in 1917.
The Glenn L. Martin Maryland Aviation Museum is located at Martin State Airport in Middle River, Maryland. It educates visitors through the use of exhibits, artifacts, archival materials and stories about aviation in Maryland over the last hundred years, with an emphasis on the Glenn L. Martin Company and the more recent Lockheed Martin histories.
Frank Henry Russell was an American aviation pioneer and the first General Manager of the Wright Brothers Company at Dayton, Ohio. He went on to co-found the Burgess Company and the Manufacturers Aircraft Association. He was the Vice President and a director of Curtiss Aeroplane & Motor Company and a director of Curtiss-Wright Corporation.