Jack Northrop
worked for the Loughead brothers as a
draftsman in 1916 before moving to the Douglas
Company in the same year. There he worked as draftsman,
designer and project engineer. He moved back to Lockheed in
1927 to design the Vega, one of the most influential aircraft of the
late 1920s.
In order to better develop his own ideas, Jack
Northrop formed the Northrop Aircraft Co. in 1929.
Northrop became a subsidiary of Douglas in 1932. There
Northrop developed the BT-1 Navy dive bomber which became the SBD
Dauntless of World War II fame.
In 1938, Jack Northrop again set out on his own to
develop his own ideas. Jack's pet project was the flying wing
and he developed both the B-35 and jet-engined B-49. These
aircraft are the ancestors of the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber.
In 1994, Northrop acquired Grumman
Aircraft to form Northrop Grumman. In a separate
merger, Northrop Grumman acquired Vought
Aircraft.
