In 1912 the Alco Hydro-Aeroplane Company was founded, and later renamed the Loughead Aircraft Manufacturing Company after the founding brothers, Allan and Malcolm Loughead. In 1926 the company became the Lockheed Aircraft Company – using the phonetic spelling.
Also founded in 1912 was the Glenn L. Martin Company. In 1961 they merged with the American-Marietta Corporation to become the Martin Marietta Corporation. After years of ups and downs, mergers, buyouts, spin-off, etc., Lockheed and Martin Marietta merged in 1995, creating Lockheed Martin. This year marks the 100th anniversary of Lockheed Martin – doubly so as both parent corporations were founded the same year.
To mark the anniversary they’ve released the following video:
Watching the video it is hard not to note the many significant developments along the way – the Vega, the P-38 Lightning, the SR-71 Blackbird, the Trident SLBM, the C-130 Hercules, the B-26 Marauder, the U-2, the C-5 Galaxy, the F-117 Nighthawk, the F-22 Raptor, the F-16 Fighting Falcon, the F-35 Lightning II, the Titan I, II, III & IV ICBM/launchers, the Littoral Combat Ship, the Orion space capsule, and a lot more. Not to mention all of the milestones not shown in the video like the P-80 Shooting Star, the F-104 Starfighter, the Electra, the P-3 Orion, C-141 Starlifter, the Constellation and Super Constellation, the L-1011 TriStar, the Atlas series of ICBM/launchers, etc. That’s a packed 100 years.
