Wright-Martin Aircraft Corporation was a short-lived aircraft manufacturing business venture between the
Wright Company
The Wright Company was the commercial aviation business venture of the Wright Brothers, established by them on November 22, 1909, in conjunction with several prominent industrialists from New York and Detroit with the intention of capitalizing o ...
(after
Orville Wright sold the Wright Company and divested himself from it) and
Glenn L. Martin.
History
Company officials merged their respective organizations, the
Wright Company
The Wright Company was the commercial aviation business venture of the Wright Brothers, established by them on November 22, 1909, in conjunction with several prominent industrialists from New York and Detroit with the intention of capitalizing o ...
and the
Glenn L. Martin Company, in 1916.
The company continued and escalated the
Wright brothers patent war
The Wright brothers patent war centers on the patent they received for their method of airplane flight control. The Wright brothers were two Americans who are widely credited with inventing and building the world's first flyable airplane and mak ...
with other aircraft manufacturers, until its resolution—under duress from the government, in 1917, at the start of U.S. involvement in
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
—by the
cross-licensing A cross-licensing agreement is a contract between two or more parties where each party grants rights to their intellectual property to the other parties.
Patent law
In patent law, a cross-licensing agreement is an agreement according to which two ...
agreement developed and managed through the
Manufacturers Aircraft Association.
[Roland, Alex (foreword by ]Jimmy Doolittle
James Harold Doolittle (December 14, 1896 – September 27, 1993) was an American military general and aviation pioneer who received the Medal of Honor for his daring raid on Japan during World War II. He also made early coast-to-coast flights ...
)
Chapter 2: "War Business: A Laboratory and Licensing; Committees and Engines, 1915-1918"
in ''Model Research'' - Volume 1, SP-4103 National Aeronautics and Space Administration, retrieved December 4, 2017
A license-built version of the
Hispano-Suiza 8 was manufactured by the company under the engineering leadership of
Henry M. Crane. It was used by
Vought VE-7, VE-8,
Boeing NB-2, and
Loening M-8.
By 1918, the company had a factory in
Long Island City, New York.
Martin soon resigned, dissolving the Wright-Martin joint enterprise within a year. The company was renamed
Wright Aeronautical
Wright Aeronautical (1919–1929) was an American aircraft manufacturer headquartered in Paterson, New Jersey. It was the successor corporation to Wright-Martin. It built aircraft and was a supplier of aircraft engines to other builders in the ...
in 1919, and shifted from manufacturing aircraft to manufacturing aircraft engines, developing the pivotal
Wright Whirlwind
The Wright Whirlwind was a family of air-cooled radial aircraft engines built by Wright Aeronautical (originally an independent company, later a division of Curtiss-Wright). The family began with nine-cylinder engines, and later expanded to incl ...
engines which changed aviation dramatically.
Glenn Martin continued development of his
Glenn L. Martin Company, which remained a major aircraft manufacturer until the 1950s and early 1960s when it also began developing rockets, missiles, and spacecraft. In 1961 the company merged with the
American-Marietta Corporation to become industrial
conglomerate (and continued aerospace manufacturer)
Martin-Marietta
The Martin Marietta Corporation was an American company founded in 1961 through the merger of Glenn L. Martin Company and American-Marietta Corporation. In 1995, it merged with Lockheed Corporation to form Lockheed Martin.
History
Martin M ...
which, in 1995, merged with
Lockheed to become today's
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 is ...
, one of the United States' three remaining major large aircraft manufacturers (along with
Boeing
The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and p ...
and
Northrop-Grumman
Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense technology company. With 90,000 employees and an annual revenue in excess of $30 billion, it is one of the world's largest weapons manufacturers and military techn ...
).
[Harwood, William B., book: '' aise Heaven and Earth: The Story of Martin Marietta'' Simon & Schuster; (1993)]
Aircraft
References
External links
* World War I advertisement for the Wright-Martin Aircraft Corporation - ''FIGHT or Join the Industrial Aircraft Service'', ''
Popular Science'' monthly, December 1918
page 91
Defunct aircraft manufacturers of the United States
.
Wright brothers
Defunct aircraft engine manufacturers of the United States
American companies established in 1916
Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1916
Manufacturing companies disestablished in 1919
American companies disestablished in 1919
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