Sperry Corporation was a major American equipment and electronics company whose existence spanned more than seven decades of the 20th century. Sperry ceased to exist in 1986 following a prolonged hostile takeover bid engineered by Burroughs Corporation, which merged the combined operation under the new name Unisys. Some of Sperry's former divisions became part of Honeywell,

Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American aerospace, arms, defense, information security, and technology corporation with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It ...

, Raytheon Technologies, and Northrop Grumman. The company is best known as the developer of the artificial horizon and a wide variety of other

gyroscope A gyroscope (from Ancient Greek γῦρος ''gŷros'', "round" and σκοπέω ''skopéō'', "to look") is a device used for measuring or maintaining orientation and angular velocity. It is a spinning wheel or disc in which the axis of rota ...

-based aviation instruments like autopilots, bombsights, analog ballistics computers and

gyro gunsight A gyro gunsight (G.G.S.) is a modification of the non-magnifying reflector sight in which target lead (the amount of aim-off in front of a moving target) and bullet drop are calculated automatically. The first examples were developed in Britain ...

s. In the post-WWII era the company branched out into electronics, both aviation related, and later, computers.

History

Early history

The company was founded in 1910 by Elmer Ambrose Sperry, as the Sperry Gyroscope Company, to manufacture navigation equipment—chiefly his own inventions the marine

gyrostabilizer A gyroscope (from Ancient Greek γῦρος ''gŷros'', "round" and σκοπέω ''skopéō'', "to look") is a device used for measuring or maintaining orientation and angular velocity. It is a spinning wheel or disc in which the axis of rota ...

and the gyrocompass—at 40 Flatbush Avenue Extension in Downtown Brooklyn. During World War I the company diversified into aircraft components including bomb sights and fire control systems. In their early decades, Sperry Gyroscope and related companies were concentrated on

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

, New York, especially in Nassau County. Over the years, it diversified to other locations. In 1918, Lawrence Sperry split from his father to compete over aero-instruments with the ''Lawrence Sperry Aircraft Company'', including the new

automatic pilot An autopilot is a system used to control the path of an aircraft, marine craft or spacecraft without requiring constant manual control by a human operator. Autopilots do not replace human operators. Instead, the autopilot assists the operator' ...

. After the death of Lawrence on December 13, 1923, the two firms were brought together in 1924. Then in 1929 it was acquired by

North American Aviation North American Aviation (NAA) was a major American aerospace manufacturer that designed and built several notable aircraft and spacecraft. Its products included: the T-6 Texan trainer, the P-51 Mustang fighter, the B-25 Mitchell bomber, the F ...

. The company again became independent in 1933 as the Sperry Corporation. The new corporation was a holding company for a number of smaller entities such as the original Sperry Gyroscope, ''Ford Instrument Company'', ''Intercontinental Aviation, Inc.'', and others. The company made advanced aircraft navigation equipment for the market, including the Sperry Gyroscope and the Sperry Radio Direction Finder. It also moved into the hydraulics industry when it acquired Vickers, Inc. in 1937. Sperry supported the work of a group of

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

inventors, led by Russell and Sigurd Varian, who had invented the klystron, and incorporated this technology and related inventions into their products. The company prospered during World War II as military demand skyrocketed, ranking 19th among US corporations in the value of wartime production contracts. It specialized in high technology devices such as analog computer–controlled bomb sights,

airborne radar Airborne or Airborn may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Airborne'' (1962 film), a 1962 American film directed by James Landis * ''Airborne'' (1993 film), a comedy–drama film * ''Airborne'' (1998 film), an action film sta ...

systems, and automated take-off and landing systems. Sperry also was the creator of the Ball Turret Gun mounted under the

Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engined heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Relatively fast and high-flying for a bomber of its era, the B-17 was used primarily in the European Theater ...

and the

Consolidated B-24 Liberator The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and some initial production aircraft were laid down as export models des ...

, as commemorated by the film '' Memphis Belle'' and the poem '' The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner''. Postwar, the company expanded its interests in electronics and computing, producing the company's first digital computer,

SPEEDAC SPEEDAC, the SPErry Electronic Digital Automatic Computer, was an early digital computer built by Sperry Corporation in 1953.Herbert Freeman, ''Cobblestones: The Story of My Life''p. 39/ref> It used 800 vacuum tubes and had magnetic drum storag ...

, in 1953. During the 1950s, a large part of Sperry Gyroscope moved to Phoenix, Arizona and soon became the

Sperry Flight Systems Sperry Corporation was a major American equipment and electronics company whose existence spanned more than seven decades of the 20th century. Sperry ceased to exist in 1986 following a prolonged hostile takeover bid engineered by Burroughs ...

Company. This was to preserve parts of this defense company in the event of a

nuclear war Nuclear warfare, also known as atomic warfare, is a theoretical military conflict or prepared political strategy that deploys nuclear weaponry. Nuclear weapons are weapons of mass destruction; in contrast to conventional warfare, nuclear w ...

. The Gyroscope division remained headquartered in New York—in its massive

Lake Success Lake Success can refer to: *Lake Success (California), lake in California *Lake Success, New York, village in New York *''Lake Success'', a novel by American author Gary Shteyngart Gary Shteyngart (; born July 5, 1972) is a Soviet-born American ...

, Long Island, plant (which also served as the temporary United Nations headquarters from 1946 to 1952)—into the 1980s.

Sperry Rand

In 1955, Sperry acquired Remington Rand and renamed itself Sperry Rand. Acquiring then- Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation and Engineering Research Associates along with Remington Rand, the company developed the successful UNIVAC computer series and signed a valuable cross-licensing deal with IBM. The company remained a major military contractor. From 1967 to 1973 the corporation was involved in an acrimonious

antitrust Competition law is the field of law that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies. Competition law is implemented through public and private enforcement. It is also known as antitrust l ...

lawsuit with Honeywell, Inc. (see ''

Honeywell v. Sperry Rand ''Honeywell, Inc. v. Sperry Rand Corp., et al.'', 180 U.S.P.Q. 673 ( D. Minn. 1973) (Case 4-67 Civil 138, 180 USPO 670), was a landmark U.S. federal court case that in October 1973 invalidated the 1964 patent for the ENIAC, the world's first gene ...

''). In 1961, Sperry Rand was ranked 34th on the

Fortune 500 The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years. The list includes publicly held companies, along ...

list of largest companies in the United States. In 1978, Sperry Rand decided to concentrate on its computing interests, and sold a number of divisions including Remington Rand Systems, Remington Rand Machines, Ford Instrument Company and Sperry Vickers. The company dropped "Rand" from its title and reverted to Sperry Corporation. At about the same time as the Rand acquisition, Sperry Gyroscope decided to open a facility that would almost exclusively produce its marine instruments. After considerable searching and evaluation, a plant was built in

Charlottesville, Virginia Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Queen Ch ...

, and in 1956, Sperry Piedmont Division began producing marine navigation products. It was later renamed Sperry Marine. In the 1970s, Sperry Corporation was a traditional conglomerate headquartered in the Sperry Rand Building at 1290 Avenue of Americas in Manhattan, selling typewriters (Sperry Remington); office equipment, electronic digital computers for business and the military (Sperry Univac); construction and farm equipment (Sperry New Holland); avionics, such as gyroscopes, radars, air route traffic control equipment (Sperry Vickers/Sperry Flight Systems); and consumer products such as electric razors (Sperry Remington). In addition, Sperry Systems Management (headquartered in the original Sperry Gyroscope building in Lake Success) performed work on a number of US government defense contracts. Sperry also managed the operation from 1961 to 1975 of the large

Louisiana Army Ammunition Plant The Louisiana Army Ammunition Plant, formerly known as the Louisiana Ordnance Plant or as The Shell Plant, is an inactive plant to load, assemble and pack ammunitions items. During production from 1942 to 1994, the Army disposed of untreated ex ...

near

Minden Minden () is a middle-sized town in the very north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, the greatest town between Bielefeld and Hanover. It is the capital of the district (''Kreis'') of Minden-Lübbecke, which is part of the region of Detm ...

. In January 1972, Sperry took over the RCA line of electronic digital computers (architectural cousins to the IBM

System/360 The IBM System/360 (S/360) is a family of mainframe computer systems that was announced by IBM on April 7, 1964, and delivered between 1965 and 1978. It was the first family of computers designed to cover both commercial and scientific applica ...

). In 1983, Sperry sold Vickers to

Libbey Owens Ford The Libbey-Owens-Ford Company (LOF) was a producer of flat glass for the automotive and building products industries both for original equipment manufacturers and for replacement use. The company's headquarters and main factories were located in T ...

(later to be renamed TRINOVA Corporation and subsequently Aeroquip-Vickers). At the same time, it acquired the Aircraft Radio Corporation from

Cessna Cessna () is an American brand of general aviation aircraft owned by Textron Aviation since 2014, headquartered in Wichita, Kansas. Originally, it was a brand of the Cessna Aircraft Company, an American general aviation aircraft manufacturing c ...

Burroughs takeover

On September 16, 1986, after the success of a second hostile takeover bid engineered by Burroughs Corporation CEO and former

U.S. Secretary of the Treasury The United States secretary of the treasury is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, and is the chief financial officer of the federal government of the United States. The secretary of the treasury serves as the principal a ...

, Michael Blumenthal, Sperry Corporation merged with Burroughs Corporation. The newly merged company was renamed

Unisys Corporation Unisys Corporation is an American multinational information technology (IT) services and consulting company headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania. It provides digital workplace solutions, cloud, applications, and infrastructure solutions, e ...

—a portmanteau of "united", "information", and "systems". The takeover came about even after Sperry used a " poison pill" in the form of a major share price hike to dissuade the hostile bid, the result of which caused Burroughs to borrow much more funding than was anticipated to complete the bid. Certain internal divisions of Sperry were sold off after the merger, such as Sperry New Holland (1986, to Ford Motor Company, who in 1991 sold the Ford-New Holland line to

Fiat Fiat Automobiles S.p.A. (, , ; originally FIAT, it, Fabbrica Italiana Automobili di Torino, lit=Italian Automobiles Factory of Turin) is an Italian automobile manufacturer, formerly part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and since 2021 a subsidiary ...

) and Sperry Marine (to Tenneco, in 1987, and is currently part of Northrop Grumman). Also sold—to Honeywell—was Sperry Aerospace Group, while Sperry Defense Products Group was sold to

Loral Loral may refer to: * Loral Corporation, contractor founded in 1948 in New York by William Lorenz and Leon Alpert as Loral Electronics Corporation * Loral Space & Communications, satellite communications company * Loral GZ-22, a non-rigid airship * ...

; those two units whose functions were originally at the heart of the venerable Sperry Gyroscope division. This group is now part of

British Sperry

Sperry in Britain started with a factory in

Pimlico Pimlico () is an area of Central London in the City of Westminster, built as a southern extension to neighbouring Belgravia. It is known for its garden squares and distinctive Regency architecture. Pimlico is demarcated to the north by London V ...

, London, in 1913, manufacturing gyroscopic compasses for the Royal Navy. It became the Sperry Gyroscope Co Ltd in 1915. In 1923, Lawrence Sperry was killed in an air crash near Rye, Sussex. The company subsequently expanded to the

Golden Mile Golden Mile or The Golden Mile may refer to: Geographical features * Golden Mile (Belfast), Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom (UK) * Golden Mile (Blackpool), Blackpool, UK * Golden Mile (Brentford), Brentford, UK * Golden Mile (Leices ...

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings whi ...

in 1931, Stonehouse, Gloucestershire in 1938, and

Bracknell Bracknell () is a large town and civil parish in Berkshire, England, the westernmost area within the Greater London Built-up Area, Greater London Urban Area and the administrative centre of the Bracknell Forest, Borough of Bracknell Forest. It l ...

in 1957. By 1963, these sites employed some 3,500 people. The Brentford site closed in 1967, with the expansion of Bracknell. Stonehouse closed around 1969. By 1969, the Sperry Gyroscope division of Sperry Rand Corporation employed around 2,500. The site of the Bracknell factory and development center (sold to British Aerospace in 1982) is commemorated by a 4.5-meter aluminum sculpture by

Philip Bentham Philip, also Phillip, is a male given name, derived from the Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominent Philips who popularize ...

, ''Sperry's New Symbolic Gyroscope'' (1967). In 1989, the Bracknell site was downsized and work was moved to the Sperry manufacturing site in

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...

by then under the British Aerospace brand. State of the art, high technology MEMS gyroscopes (together with other avionics equipment) are still made on the site today, although the company is now owned by United Technologies Corporation and is part of

UTC Aerospace Systems UTC Aerospace Systems (UTAS) was one of the world’s largest suppliers of aerospace and defense products, headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States. The company was formed in August 2012 when parent United Technologies Corporation ...

Sperry since 1997

The name Sperry lives on in the company Sperry Marine, headquartered in New Malden, England. This company, formed in 1997, from three well-known brand names in the marine industry—Sperry Marine, Decca, and C. Plath—is now part of Northrop Grumman Corporation. It is a worldwide supplier of navigation, communication, information and automation systems for commercial marine and naval markets.

Products

Aircraft

Missiles and rockets

* Sperry MGM-29 Sergeant

In popular culture

*The 1986 comedy '' Jumpin' Jack Flash'' features many Sperry computers in the bank where the protagonist (played by Whoopi Goldberg) works. Jim Belushi plays the role of a Sperry "repairman".

References

Notes

Bibliography

* *

External links

USStexasbb35.com
Mark 51 Gun director
dreadnoughtproject.org
Director Firing Handbook index from HMS Dreadnought project

Sperry Corporation, UNIVAC Division Photograph Collection
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Hagley Museum and Library The Hagley Museum and Library is a nonprofit educational institution in unincorporated New Castle County, Delaware, near Wilmington. Covering more than along the banks of the Brandywine Creek, the museum and grounds include the first du Pont ...

Sperry Gyroscope Company Division records
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Sperry Rand Corporation, Engineering Research Associates (ERA) Division records
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Sperry Rand Corporation. Remington Rand Division records: Advertising and Sales Promotion Department
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Sperry Rand Corporation, Univac Division records
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Sperry-UNIVAC records
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