Northrop Corporation was an American aircraft manufacturer from its formation in 1939 until its 1994 merger with Grumman to form Northrop Grumman. The company is known for its development of the flying wing design, most successfully the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber.
thumb|Northrop Corporation [[F-5E Tiger II of the Swiss Air Force arrives at the 2016 RIAT, England ]]
History
Jack Northrop founded three companies using his name. The first was the Avion Corporation in 1928, which was absorbed in 1929 by the United Aircraft and Transport Corporation as a subsidiary named "Northrop Aircraft Corporation" (and later became part of Boeing). The parent company moved its operations to Kansas in 1931, and so Northrop, along with Donald Douglas, established a "Northrop Corporation" located in El Segundo, California, which produced several successful designs, including the Northrop Gamma and Northrop Delta. However, labor difficulties led to the dissolution of the corporation by Douglas in 1937, and the plant became the El Segundo Division of Douglas Aircraft.
Northrop still sought his own company, and so in 1939 he established the "Northrop Corporation" in nearby Hawthorne, California, a site located by co-founder Moye Stephens. The corporation ranked 100th among United States corporations in the value of World War II military production contracts. It was there that the P-61 Black Widow night fighter, the B-35 and YB-49 experimental flying wing bombers, the F-89 Scorpion interceptor, the SM-62 Snark intercontinental cruise missile, and the F-5 Freedom Fighter economical jet fighter (and its derivative, the successful T-38 Talon trainer) were developed and built.
Based on the experimentation with flying wings the company developed the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber of the 1990s.
In 1994, partly due to the loss of the Advanced Tactical Fighter contract to Lockheed Corporation and the removal of their proposal from consideration for the Joint Strike Fighter competition, the company bought Grumman to form Northrop Grumman.
Aircraft
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Model name
! First flight
! Number built
! Type
|-
|align=left| Northrop Alpha
|align=center| 1930
|align=center| 17
|align=left| Single-engine transport
|-
|align=left| Northrop C-19 Alpha
|align=center| 1930
|align=center| 3
|align=left| Single-engine transport
|-
|-
|align=left| Northrop Beta
|align=center| 1931
|align=center| 2
|align=left| Single-engine sport airplane
|-
|align=left| Northrop Gamma
|align=center| 1932
|align=center| 60
|align=left| Single-engine transport
|-
|align=left| Northrop Delta
|align=center| 1933
|align=center| 13
|align=left| Single-engine transport, 19 additional aircraft built by Canadian Vickers
|-
|align=left| Northrop XFT
|align=center| 1933
|align=center| 1
|align=left| Prototype naval fighter
|-
|align=left| Northrop YA-13
|align=center| 1933
|align=center| 1
|align=left| Prototype attack aircraft
|-
|align=left| Northrop A-17/Nomad
|align=center| 1935
|align=center| 411
|align=left| Attack/light bomber
|-
|align=left| Northrop BT
|align=center| 1935
|align=center| 55
|align=left| Dive bomber
|-
|align=left| Northrop N-1M
|align=center| 1940
|align=center| 1
|align=left| Experimental flying wing
|-
|align=left| Northrop N-3PB
|align=center| 1940
|align=center| 24
|align=left| Floatplane patrol bomber
|-
|align=left| Northrop P-61 Black Widow
|align=center| 1942
|align=center| 706
|align=left| Night fighter
|-
|align=left| Northrop N-9M
|align=center| 1942
|align=center| 4
|align=left| Experimental scale flying wing proof of concept for B-35
|-
|align=left| Northrop XP-56 Black Bullet
|align=center| 1943
|align=center| 2
|align=left| Prototype tailless fighter
|-
|align=left| Northrop F-15 Reporter
|align=center| 1945
|align=center| 36
|align=left| Reconnaissance aircraft based on P-61
|-
|align=left| Northrop XP-79
|align=center| 1945
|align=center| 1
|align=left| Prototype jet flying wing fighter
|-
|align=left| Northrop YB-35
|align=center| 1946
|align=center| 2
|align=left| Prototype strategic bomber
|-
|align=left| Northrop Pioneer<!--N-23-->
|align=center| 1946
|align=center| 1
|align=left| Trimotor transport
|-
|align=left| Northrop YB-49
|align=center| 1947
|align=center| 3
|align=left| Prototype eight-jet-engine strategic bomber
|-
|align=left| Northrop F-89 Scorpion
|align=center| 1948
|align=center| 1,052
|align=left| Interceptor
|-
|align=left| Northrop X-4 Bantam
|align=center| 1948
|align=center| 2
|align=left| Experimental trans-sonic tailless aircraft
|-
|align=left| Northrop YC-125 Raider<!--N-32-->
|align=center| 1949
|align=center| 23
|align=left| Trimotor transport
|-
|align=left| Northrop F-5<!--N-156-->
|align=center| 1959
|align=center| 2,246
|align=left| Lightweight fighter
|-
|align=left| Northrop T-38 Talon<!--N-205-->
|align=center| 1959
|align=center| 1,146
|align=left| Advanced trainer
|-
|align=left| Northrop X-21<!--N-250-->
|align=center| 1963
|align=center| 2
|align=left| Experimental boundary layer control aircraft
|-
|align=left| Northrop M2-F2
|align=center| 1966
|align=center| 1
|align=left| Experimental rocket powered lifting body
|-
|align=left| Northrop HL-10
|align=center| 1966
|align=center| 1
|align=left| Experimental rocket lifting body
|-
|align=left| Northrop M2-F3
|align=center| 1970
|align=center| 1
|align=left| Experimental rocket lifting body
|-
|align=left| Northrop YA-9
|align=center| 1972
|align=center| 2
|align=left| Prototype attack aircraft
|-
|align=left| Northrop YF-17
|align=center| 1974
|align=center| 2
|align=left| Prototype fighter, led to F/A-18
|-
|align=left| Northrop Tacit Blue
|align=center| 1982
|align=center| 1
|align=left| Experimental stealth aircraft
|-
|align=left| Northrop F-20 Tigershark
|align=center| 1982
|align=center| 3
|align=left| Prototype lightweight fighter derived from F-5
|-
|align=left| Northrop B-2 Spirit
|align=center| 1989
|align=center| 21
|align=left| Strategic stealth bomber
|-
|align=left| Northrop YF-23
|align=center| 1990
|align=center| 2
|align=left| Prototype stealth fighter
|-
|}
Projects
- Northrop N-1 (USAAC flying wing bomber)
- Northrop N-4 (USAAF pursuit)
- Northrop N-5 (USAAF pursuit)
- Northrop N-6 (Navy fighter design)
- Northrop N-15 (2-engine cargo plane)
- Northrop N-31 (flying wing bomber project)
- Northrop N-34 (nuclear-powered flying wing bomber design)
- Northrop N-55 (patrol aircraft)
- Northrop N-59 (carrier-based bomber)
- Northrop N-60 (ASW aircraft; lost to Grumman S-2 Tracker)
- Northrop N-63 (rival tailsitting VTOL design to Lockheed XFV-1 and Convair XFY-1)
- Northrop N-65 (interceptor for WS-201 program)
- Northrop N-74 (tactical transport)
- Northrop N-94 (Navy fighter competitor design to Vought F8U Crusader)
- Northrop N-102 Fang
- Northrop N-103 (all-weather interceptor)
- Northrop N-132 (strategic fighter)
- Northrop N-144 (long-range interceptor)
- Northrop N-155 (target-towing aircraft)
- Northrop N-285 (USN advanced jet trainer; lost to T-45 Goshawk)
- Northrop N-321/P610 (Light-Weight Fighter)
Unmanned aerial vehicles
- Northrop AQM-35
- Northrop AQM-38
- Northrop BQM-74 Chukar
Missiles
- GAM-67 Crossbow
- Northrop JB-1 Bat
- SM-62 Snark
Leadership
President
- John Knudsen Northrop, 1940–1953
- Oliver Patton Echols, 1953–1955
- Whitley C. Collins, 1955–1959
- Thomas Victor Jones, 1959–1976
- Thomas Otten Paine, 1976–1982
- Frank W. Lynch, 1982–
Chairman of the Board
- LaMotte T. Cohu, 1940–1948
- Richard William Millar, 1948–1950
- Oliver Patton Echols, 1950–1955
- William C. McDuffie, 1955–1963
- Thomas Victor Jones, 1963–