Litton Industries

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.

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.

Their famous logo, used from the 1960s to the 90s was a stylized "li", followed by the division's name in an all caps sans-serif font. For much of the 1990s, "li SWEDA" was a common sight on cash registers, and "li COLE" can still be found on many filing cabinets.

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
**Sperry Marine
**C.Plath
**Decca Radar (formerly a division of Racal)
***Decca Navigator, a historical VLF navigation system
*Litton Systems Canada
*Litton Italia
*LITEF
*TELDIX
*Litton Kester
*Litton Advanced Systems (formerly Litton Amecom)
*Litton Datalog (formerly the New York Times Facsimile Company and the printer part of Monroe Calculator; merged into Amecom 1982)
*Litton Western (Formerly Western Electric, audio providers for the film industry. Credits notable, for example, on Yellow Submarine.)

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)

References

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

External links

* [http://www.northropgrumman.com/ Northrop Grumman Website]
* [http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/98219/3105F04E5A61 LITTON Alumni] - Litton Alumni Group on LinkedIn