Litton Industries

Litton Industries

Industry	Defense
Fate	Acquired by Northrop Grumman
Successor	Northrop Grumman
Founded	1953
Defunct	2001
Headquarters	Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.
Products	Litton

Named after inventor Charles Litton, Sr., Litton Industries was a large defense contractor in the United States, bought by the Northrop Grumman Corporation in 2001.

History

Litton started in 1953 as an electronics company building navigation, communications and electronic warfare equipment. They diversified and became a much bigger business, with major shipyards, etc., and even manufacturing microwave ovens.

In the early 1990s, Litton Industries split into separate military and commercial companies. The US$2 billion commercial business, which included Litton's oilfield services, business and automated assembly line operations, was named Western Atlas, Inc.

The early "li" was designed by Robert Miles Runyan, but was modified in 1986 by designer Gregory Thomas after a worldwide comprehensive study and analysis of the corporate identity. For much of the early 1980s and 90s, "li SWEDA" and "li COLE" were commonly found on product goods but it was modified to bring emphasis to the parent company, whose name was little known.

Divisions

• Litton Guidance and Control Systems
• Litton Aero Products
• Litton Electron Devices → now L-3 Communications, Electron Devices: San Carlos CA & Williamsport PA
• Litton Data Systems
• Litton Space Systems
• Litton Integrated Systems
• Litton Ship Systems
  • Avondale Shipyards
  • Ingalls Shipyards
• 

  Litton Marine Systems logo
  Litton Marine Systems
  • Sperry Marine
  • C.Plath
  • Decca Radar (formerly a division of Racal)
    • Decca Navigator, a historical VLF navigation system
• Litton Systems Canada
• Litton Italia
• Litton Encoder
• Litton Network Access Systems
• Litton PRC
• LITEF (Litton Technische Werke Freiburg, Germany)
• TELDIX
• Litton Kester, a manufacturer of electronics grade solders, particularly the "eutectic" Sn63Pb37 alloy (lowest melting point of any purely tin-lead alloy)
• Litton Advanced Systems (formerly Litton Amecom)
• Litton Life Support Systems (formerly Bendix Instruments and Life Support Division) Davenport, Iowa
• Litton Datalog (formerly the New York Times Facsimile Company and the printer part of Monroe Calculator; merged into Amecom 1982)
• Litton Westrex (Formerly Western Electric, provider to the film industry of magnetic and photographic sound recording systems. Credits on nearly every Columbia, Fox, M-G-M, Paramount and Universal features, and several independents, including Quinn Martin. Developer of the 45-45 system of stereo phonograph recording, StereoDisk.)
• Litton Bionetics, Fort Detrick, Frederick, MD
• Western Atlas, a joint venture formed with Dresser Industries, including former Litton subsidiary Western Geophysical. Spun off in 1994.

Consumer and office products:

• Litton Cole (filing cabinets and office furniture)
• Litton Moffat (major appliances)
• Litton Sweda (cash registers)
• Litton Monroe (adding machines/calculators)
• Litton Royal (typewriters)
• Litton Adler (typewriters)
• Stouffer's (frozen food products, restaurants, and hotels; purchased in 1967, sold to Nestle in 1973)

See also

• Cruise missile protest

Further reading

• Robert Sobel The Money Manias: The Eras of Great Speculation in America, 1770–1970 (1973) reprinted (2000).

External links

• Official website
• Northrop Grumman
• LITTON Industries Alumni - LITTON Industries Alumni group on LinkedIn