Business: The Grand Slam

Streaking across the Air Force proving grounds at Muroc Lake, Calif., Northrop Aircraft’s new fighter seemed for a moment to explode in the air. From the big pods at the wing tips, great puffs of smoke and flame shot out. The explosions were the blasts from showers of rockets shot from the pods. They gave the “Scorpion,” said the Air Force, the heaviest firepower of any U.S. fighter. Although the big, heavy Scorpion is full of radar equipment, it can climb higher than 40,000 ft. Its radar eyes can search out an enemy plane in night or thick weather, “lock” the Scorpion on a collision course with the enemy, and when within range, automatically fire its rockets. The new interceptor, which the” Air Force expects to be in the first line of defense against atomic attack, has already earned an admiring nickname from Northrop’s workers: the “Grand Slam.”

Last week, the Grand Slam gave Northrop’s President John K. (Jack) Northrop a big pot in what had long looked like a losing game. To Northrop Aircraft, which had more than once lost heavily on postwar wrong guesses, the Air Force was readying $154 million in contracts for the new plane, which would bring Northrop’s total backlog to $389 million.

Hard Times. Jack Northrop began designing an all-weather interceptor six years ago, when no enemy had any A-bombs to drop on the U.S. Northrop has i habit of looking ahead. A onetime garage mechanic, he helped found Lockheed Aircraft, designed the Lockheed Vega, used by Wiley Post on his two flights around the world and by Amelia Earhart on her second transatlantic flight in 1932. On his own, Northrop built the Alpha, forerunner of the modern low-wing, all-metal monoplane, and pioneered multicellular metal construction in commercial airplanes. He had long dreamed of an all-wing (i.e., Flying Wing) as the plane of the future, and had flown a prototype. After a spell working for Douglas Aircraft as a vice president bossing the El Segundo plant, Northrop, with the help of two friends, finally launched his own small plant in 1939.

Like all the others, it mushroomed during World War II. At the peak, Northrop had 10,000 employees, turned out $280 million worth of planes and parts, including 1,000 of his P-61 Black Widow night fighters. Like many another builder, Northrop also lost millions on postwar ventures into nonaircraft projects (among Northrop’s bad bets: motor scooters and calculating machines). He also bet on a three-engine transport plane and his long cherished Flying Wing. The transport was behind its time, the Flying Wing ahead of it. The Government, which had staked both to $80 million worth of postwar orders, canceled them, left Northrop floundering.

Soft Heart. Easygoing Jack Northrop, who admits that he is “too softhearted” to be a good boss, knew that he was a better designer than administrator. In 1949 he took a back seat to a new chairman and general manager, Oliver P. Echols, a retired Air Force major general who was chief of Air Force Material & Services in World War 11, later served as president of the Aircraft Industries Association. Echols soon shook the soggy company into a model of cost-conscious efficiency. Northrop was left free to do what he liked best: design. And just before Echols came in, Northrop’s Scorpion design landed a $50 million production contract. Echols bossed the production.

Designer Northrop and Administrator Echols made a good team. The company, which had lost $3.9 million in two years, last year came out of the red, showed a $3.2 million profit. This year, with 17,000 workers, almost twice as many as World War II’s peak, it expects to earn more than $2,000,000 after taxes.

Airman Echols says that his main job is to try to guess what the Joint Chiefs of Staff will be wanting five years hence. Northrop’s job is to make them want what he designs. Right now, Northrop is worrying about the “thermal barrier”— the speeds where air friction will disintegrate metal planes. He is experimenting with fuselages made of glass fiber, which will not melt at those speeds. Looking further ahead to the days of pilotless planes, Northrop already has about 14% of his work force on guided missiles, expects a production contract soon. Against rainy days, Northrop Aircraft has no more plans for scooters; instead it is making pilotless target planes, on the assumption that come what may, the Air Force will always need something to shoot at.