Curtiss-Wright

Curtiss-Wright Corporation

Type	Public (NYSE: CW)
Industry	Aerospace Defense Oil and Gas Nuclear Power Generation Other various industry
Founded	Buffalo, New York (1916-Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company) New York City (1909-Wright Aeronautical)
Headquarters	Roseland, New Jersey, US
Key people	Martin R. Benante, CEO Glenn E. Tynan, VP, CFO David J. Linton, Co-COO David C. Adams, Co-COO
Products	Valves, Pumps, Motors, Generators Instrumentation, Controls, Actuation, Drive Sensors Embedded Computing Metal Treatment
Revenue	US$1.6 billion (FY 2007) [1] [1]
Employees	7,500 (2007)
Divisions	Curtiss-Wright Flow Control Curtiss-Wright Motion Control Curtiss-Wright Metal Treatment Wright Aeronautical
Website	Curtiss-Wright.com

The Curtiss-Wright Corporation (NYSE: CW) was the largest aircraft manufacturer in the United States at the end of World War II, but has evolved to largely become a component manufacturer, specializing in actuators, aircraft controls, valves, and metalworking.

History

Merger and expansion

Curtiss-Wright came into existence July 5, 1929, the result of a merger of 12 companies associated with Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company of Buffalo, New York, and Wright Aeronautical of Dayton, Ohio,^[2] and was headquartered in Buffalo, New York. With $75 million in capital, it was the largest aviation company in the country.

Companys Merged[3]	Owner
Wright Aeronautical Corp	Hoyt
Curtiss Aeroplane & Motor Co	Keys
Curtiss Airports Corp.	Keys
Curtiss Flying Service	Keys
Curtiss Aeroplane Export Co.	Keys
Curtiss-Caproni Corp.	Keys
Curtiss-Robertson Airplane Mfg. Co.	Keys
New York Air Terminals	Hoyt
N.Y. & Suburban Airlines	Hoyt
Keystone Aircraft Corp	Hoyt

There were three main divisions: the Curtiss-Wright Airplane Division, which manufactured airframes; the Wright Aeronautical Corporation, which produced aeronautical engines; and the Curtiss-Wright Propeller Division, which manufactured propellers. After 1929, most engines produced by the new company were known as Wrights, while most aircraft were given the Curtiss name, with a few exceptions.

Throughout the 1930s, Curtiss-Wright designed and built aircraft for military, commercial, and private markets. But it was the Wright engine division and the longstanding relationship with the US military that would help the company through the difficult years of the Great Depression. In 1937, the company developed the P-36 fighter aircraft, resulting in the largest peacetime aircraft order ever given by the Army Air Corps. Curtiss-Wright also sold the P-36 abroad, where they were used in the early days of World War II.

During World War II, Curtiss-Wright produced 142,840 aircraft engines, 146,468 electric propellers and 29,269 airplanes.^[2] During this period, it became the second largest company in the United States, employed 180,000 workers, and had an annual revenue surpassing $1 billion for two consecutive years (behind only General Motors).^{[citation needed]}

Aircraft production included almost 14,000 P-40 fighters, made famous by their use by Claire Chennault's Flying Tigers in China, over 3,000 Curtiss C-46 Commando transport aircraft, and later in the war, over 7,000 SB2C Helldivers. Its most visible success came with the P-40, variously known as Tomahawk, Kittyhawk, and Warhawk, which were built between 1940 and 1944 at the main production facility in Buffalo, New York. Along with the Buffalo plant, major aircraft production was at Columbus, Ohio, St. Louis, Missouri, and Louisville, Kentucky. Engine and propeller production was at plants in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.

Curtiss-Wright at Caldwell, New Jersey, in 1941.

In May 1942, the U.S. government assigned Curtiss-Wright a defense production factory for wartime aircraft construction at Louisville, Kentucky, to produce the C-76 Caravan cargo plane, which was constructed mostly of wood, a non-priority war material. However, after difficulties with the C-76 (including a crash of a production model in mid-1943), as well as the realization that sufficient quantities of aluminum aircraft alloys would be available for war production, plans for large-scale C-76 production were rejected.^[4] The Louisville plant was converted to C-46 Commando production, eventually delivering 438 Commandos to supplement the roughly 2,500 C-46s produced at Buffalo. The C-46 cargo plane was fitted with two powerful radial engines, and could carry more cargo at higher altitudes than any other Allied aircraft. Consequently, it was used extensively in the China-Burma-India Theater.

Defective parts sold to U.S. military in World War II

Richard J. Eskow, senior fellow with the Campaign for America's Future and columnist for the Huffington Post, wrote in a 2011 column^[5] that his uncle Jack Temple "died in World War II. He died after taking a new bomber out for its first flight in the South Pacific. Apparently his plane's engines were sold to the military even though manufacturer Curtiss-Wright knew they were defective. Curtiss-Wright's senior executives were fired and a general went to prison as a result of Sen. Harry Truman's investigation. Arthur Miller's play All My Sons is based on this incident."

Eskow references a 2006 op-ed by Sarah Anderson^[6] that appeared in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and on AlterNet. Anderson states that Curtiss-Wright "had sold leaky motors to the government and covered it up with forged inspection reports." As a result of the investigation, wrote Anderson, "heads rolled at Curtiss-Wright and one general wound up in prison."

Post–World War II

Curtiss-Wright failed to make the transition to design and production of jet aircraft, despite several attempts. During the war the company hadn't invested as much as it should have in research and development, having to spend most of its resources keeping up with wartime production orders. This was especially true in the first few years of the war, when Curtiss-Wright had most of the government aviation contracts, and was producing about as many aircraft as the rest of the industry combined.^{[citation needed]} This allowed other companies the time to design more advanced aircraft and slowly ramp up their production lines. Aviation technology was progressing very rapidly then, and a year or two of technology lag made all the difference. The final nail in the coffin was the choice of the Northrop F-89 Scorpion over the XF-87 Blackhawk; after the F-87 was cancelled October 10, 1948, Curtiss-Wright shut down its entire Aeroplane Division and sold the assets to North American Aviation.

While this marked Curtiss-Wright's departure from preeminence in the aviation industry, one notable spin-off involved Curtiss-Wright's flight research laboratory, founded in 1943 near the main plant at the Buffalo airport. During divestiture of the airframe division, the lab was given to Cornell University along with a cash gift to finish construction of a transonic wind tunnel. Cornell Aeronautical Labs, or CAL as it was known, was eventually spun off from the university as a private company, Calspan Corporation, which has been responsible for many subsequent innovations in flight and safety research. For an aircraft company that failed largely due to lack of sufficient research and development during World War II, it is ironic that Curtiss-Wright's flight research division was one of the few parts of the once-huge aviation conglomerate to survive to the present day.

Curtiss-Wright Travel Air CW-12Q at Cotswold Airport, Gloucestershire, England

After the Government gave the development of the Whittle jet engine to GE, the company concentrated on reciprocating engines and propeller production for military transport and civilian airliners. With the approaching twilight of the big piston aircraft engine, Curtiss-Wright needed new design inspiration. For a brief time, Curtiss-Wright licensed rights to the Wankel rotary engine from NSU in 1958 as a possible aircraft power plant, but also as an automobile engine intended for the AMC Pacer. For this major innovative engineering project, Curtiss-Wright relied extensively on the design leadership of NSU-Wankel engineer Max Bentele. Design difficulties were challenging, and eventually^[when?] the Wankel project was shelved.

In 1956, financially strapped automaker Studebaker-Packard Corporation entered into a management agreement with Curtiss-Wright as a means for the nation's fifth largest automobile manufacturer to avoid insolvency. The relationship lasted until 1959 at which time Curtiss-Wright withdrew from the agreement.

The shift of civilian aircraft to jets left the company with little of its old business, and during the 1960s it shifted to components for aircraft and other types of equipment, such as nuclear submarines, a business that was still being conducted in 2009.

Curtiss-Wright's revenue declined from US$2 billion in 1945 to US$200 million in 1980.^{[citation needed]}

In 2010, Curtiss-Wright acquired Hybricon Corporation for $19 million in cash. Hybricon is a leading supplier of high performance electronic packaging for the aerospace, defense and commercial markets, and provides electronic subsystem integration expertise, which generates more efficient product development and reduced design and manufacturing risk for its customers.

In 2011, Curtiss-Wright acquired Ireland based Acra Control for $61 million in cash. Acra Control is a leading supplier of data acquisition systems and networks, data recorders and telemetry ground stations for both defense and commercial aerospace markets.

In 2005 Kirk W. House produced a historic photo book, Curtiss-Wright, in the Arcadia Publishing "Images of America" series. House is the former director of the Glenn Curtiss Museum. The book primarily covers from the time of the merger through the aftermath of World War II.

Products

Aircraft

• Curtiss Bleeker SX-5-1 Helicopter
• Curtiss-Wright Junior
• Curtiss T-32 Condor II
• Curtiss-Wright CW-5
• Travel Air 6000
• Curtiss-Wright CW-12
• Travel Air 4000
• Curtiss-Wright CW-15
• Travel Air 4000
• Curtiss-Wright CW-19
• Curtiss C-46 Commando
• Curtiss-Wright CW-21
• Curtiss-Wright CW-22
• Curtiss AT-9
• Curtiss P-36 Hawk
• Curtiss P-40 Warhawk/Tomahawk/Kittyhawk
• Curtiss XP-53
• XP-55 Ascender
• Curtiss P-60
• Curtiss XP-62
• Curtiss XP-71
• SB2C Helldiver
• SOC Seagull
• SO3C Seamew
• SC Seahawk
• Curtiss XF14C
• Curtiss XF15C
• C-76 Caravan
• XF-87 Blackhawk
• Curtiss-Wright X-19

Curtiss Electric propellers

As well as manufacturing engines, a range of electrically actuated constant speed three- and four-bladed propellers were manufactured under the name Curtiss Electric.^[7]

Curtiss-Wright Empire

Curtiss-Wright: Biggest Aviation Company Expands Its Empire. An overall perspective of how Curtiss-Wright stretches from St. Louis to Buffalo, and how its products flow from the factories to the U.S. aircraft industry. Dated: September 15, 1941.

See also

• United States v. Curtiss-Wright Export Corp.

References

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} "Financial Statements and Supplemental Data". Form 10-K. Curtiss-Wright Corporation. 2007. http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/26324/000093041308001248/c52417_10k.htm. Retrieved 2008-07-15. 
2. ^ ^{a b} http://www.curtisswright.com/history.asp
3. ^ Time. 8 July 1929. 
4. ^ Curtiss-Wright Aircraft Factory. University Press of Kentucky. 2000. http://books.google.com/books?id=pXbYITw4ZesC&lpg=PA235&ots=bxCavTMi_d&dq=c-76%20cancel%20aluminum%20airplane&pg=PA235#v=onepage&q&f=false. Retrieved 2010-06-04. 
5. ^ Eskow, Richard J. (28 May 2011). "My Family's Fallen and Yours Deserve More than Platitudes for Memorial Day". Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/veterans-social-security-_b_868491.html. Retrieved 29 May 2011. 
6. ^ Anderson,Sarah (6 March 2006). "Fighting War Profiteering Truman Style". AlterNet. http://www.alternet.org/story/33131/. Retrieved 29 May 2011. 
7. ^ Curtiss Electric Propeller

Bibliography

• Bowers, Peter M. Curtiss Aircraft 1907-1947. London: Putnam & Company Ltd., 1979. ISBN 0-370-10029-8.
• Eltscher, Louis R. and Young, Edward M. Curtiss-Wright – Greatness and Decline. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1998. ISBN 0-80579-829-3.
• Gunston, Bill (2006). World Encyclopedia of Aero Engines, 5th Edition. Phoenix Mill, Gloucestershire, England, UK: Sutton Publishing Limited. ISBN 0-7509-4479-X. 

• House, Kirk W. Curtiss Wright. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2005. ISBN 0-7385-3870-1.

External links

• Curtiss-Wright website
• Curtiss-Wright Controls website
• Curtiss-Wright Controls Electronics Systems website
• Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing website
• Curtiss-Wright Flow Control website
• Curtiss-Wright Metal Treatment website
• The Glenn Curtiss Companies: U.S. Centennial of Flight Commemoration
• History of the Aerospace Industry in Buffalo, NY