TRW Inc. facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
TRW Inc.

Industry	Automotive and aerospace
Fate	Acquired
Successor	TRW Automotive, Northrop Grumman and Goodrich Corporation
Founded	1901
Defunct	2002
Headquarters	Euclid, Ohio / Lyndhurst, Ohio, United States
Key people	Simon Ramo, Dean Wooldridge
Products	Automotive, aerospace and credit reporting
Number of employees	122,258
Subsidiaries	CAV, Girling, LucasVarity Automotive and Lucas Aerospace

TRW Inc. was a big American company that worked in many different areas. Its main businesses were in aerospace (things that fly in space), cars, and credit reporting (keeping track of people's financial history).

TRW was a leader in creating new technologies. This included electronic parts, computer chips, computers, software, and systems engineering (designing complex systems). TRW built many spacecraft, like Pioneer 1, Pioneer 10, and several space telescopes. In 1986, it was one of the 100 largest companies in the U.S., with over 122,000 employees.

The company was first called Thompson Ramo Wooldridge Inc. This name came from a merger in 1958 between Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation and Thompson Products. Later, the name was shortened to TRW.

TRW started in 1901 and operated for over 100 years. In 2002, another company called Northrop Grumman bought it. TRW helped create many other companies, like Pacific Semiconductors and Experian. The parts of TRW that made car parts were sold off and became TRW Automotive. Today, this company is part of ZF Friedrichshafen. Many people who worked at TRW later helped start new companies, like SpaceX.

In 1953, the U.S. government asked TRW to help develop America's first ICBM (a very long-range missile). TRW worked with other companies to launch the Atlas missile in 1957. This missile was later used to send Mercury astronauts into space. TRW also helped develop the Titan missile, which was used for the Gemini space missions. TRW helped the U.S. Air Force with all later ICBM projects. However, TRW never made the actual missile parts itself.

How TRW Started and Grew

TRW began in 1901 as the Cleveland Cap Screw Company. It was founded by David Kurtz and four other people in Cleveland, Ohio. They first made bolts by welding the heads onto the shafts.

Making Car Engine Parts

In 1904, a welder named Charles E. Thompson found a way to use their welding process to make engine valves for cars. By 1915, his company was the biggest maker of valves in the United States. Charles Thompson became the general manager, and in 1926, the company was renamed Thompson Products. Their special hollow valves, cooled with sodium, even helped Charles Lindbergh fly alone across the Atlantic Ocean!

In 1937, Thompson Motor Products bought J.A. Drake and Sons (JADSON). This company made high-performance valves used in many racing engines, like the famous Miller Offy.

Helping During Wars

Before and during World War II and the Korean War, Thompson Products made important parts for aircraft engines, including cylinder valves. The TAPCO plant, which Thompson Products operated for the U.S. government, was huge. It employed over 16,000 workers during World War II. As jet planes became more common, Thompson Products started making turbine blades for jet engines.

Joining Forces: Ramo-Wooldridge and Thompson Products

In 1950, two engineers, Simon Ramo and Dean Wooldridge, worked at Hughes Aircraft Company. They helped develop the Falcon radar-guided missile. They decided to start their own company, the Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation, in September 1953. Thompson Products helped them financially.

Around this time, the U.S. government became very interested in ballistic missiles. Ramo and Wooldridge were part of a special committee that studied how to develop these missiles. Their company, Ramo-Wooldridge Corp., became the main contractor for the ICBM development project for the United States Air Force.

With more support from Thompson Products, Ramo-Wooldridge started working on computers and electronic components. They even founded Pacific Semiconductors in 1954. They also built scientific spacecraft, like Pioneer 1.

In October 1958, Thompson Products and Ramo-Wooldridge merged to form Thompson Ramo Wooldridge Inc., which everyone called "TRW."

Changes and New Businesses

In 1960, a new non-profit group called The Aerospace Corporation was formed to help the U.S. government with systems engineering. But TRW continued to guide the ICBM projects.

Dean Wooldridge retired in 1962. Simon Ramo became president of the Bunker Ramo Corporation in 1964. This company, partly owned by TRW, made computers and monitors. In July 1965, Thompson Ramo Wooldridge officially became TRW Inc.

In 1968, TRW entered the credit reporting business by buying Credit Data Corporation. They renamed it TRW Information Systems and Services Inc. This part of the company later became Experian in 1996.

TRW continued to grow, buying LucasVarity in 1999. In 2000, TRW had 122,258 employees and operated in 25 countries around the world.

The End of TRW Inc.

In February 2002, another company called Northrop Grumman wanted to buy TRW. After some back and forth, Northrop Grumman's offer was accepted on July 1, 2002. Soon after, TRW's car parts businesses were sold off and became TRW Automotive.

Today, much of TRW's old campus in Lyndhurst, Ohio, is now a wellness center.

Did you know that Bill Gates, who started Microsoft, said he got "his first big break" at age fifteen? He was debugging (fixing errors in) energy-grid control software for TRW. He said it was "kind of scary" because he realized how important the program was.

TRW in Space

A satellite reflector being developed by TRW near Cleveland, Ohio (1968)

TRW Inc. was very involved in creating missile systems and spacecraft. They were key in developing the U.S. ICBM program. TRW also helped create systems engineering, which is a way of designing and managing very complex projects.

Exploring Space

TRW's Space Technology Laboratories (STL) designed and built parts for the Pioneer 0, Pioneer 1, and Pioneer 2 missions. These missions aimed to orbit and photograph the Moon. NASA launched Pioneer 1 in 1958. It set a record for distance from Earth and sent back information about Earth's radiation belts.

TRW Systems Group designed and built Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11. These spacecraft were made to be very tough because they were the first human-made objects to travel through the asteroid belt and Jupiter's strong radiation belt. They used special plutonium-238 power units. Pioneer 10 and 11 carried instruments to study Jupiter and Saturn. Pioneer 10 was the first human-made object to pass all the planets in our solar system. It sent back data for 30 years after its launch!

TRW Systems Group also designed the instruments that searched for life on Mars aboard the two Viking Landers, launched in 1975. This system performed four experiments on Martian soil.

Space Telescopes

TRW designed and built several important space observatories (telescopes in space):

• HEAO 1, 2, and 3. HEAO 2 was the Einstein Observatory, the first X-ray telescope to take pictures from space.
• Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, which was the second of NASA's four "Great Observatories."
• Chandra X-ray Observatory, the third of NASA's Great Observatories.

The teams working on these telescopes continued their work as part of Northrop Grumman after TRW was bought. These projects include:

• The James Webb Space Telescope, which is the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope.

Satellites

TRW Systems Group designed and made the Vela satellites. These satellites watched for nuclear explosions to make sure countries followed the 1963 nuclear test ban treaty. They also built the Defense Support Program (DSP) satellites. These satellites are used by the United States to detect missile launches and nuclear explosions by sensing their heat. During the Gulf War, DSP satellites detected Iraqi Scud missiles and warned people in Israel and Saudi Arabia.

TRW also built the first seven Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) satellites. These satellites help improve communication for the Space Shuttle, International Space Station (ISS), and U.S. military satellites. When they were first launched in 1983, they were the largest and most advanced communication satellites ever built.

In 2002, TRW produced the Aqua spacecraft. This satellite collects information about Earth's water cycle in the oceans, lakes, atmosphere, and polar ice caps.

Rocket Engines

TRW designed and built the descent engine for the Apollo lunar lander. This engine was special because it was the first throttleable engine for crewed space flight. This meant astronauts could control its power to make a soft landing on the Moon. NASA praised this engine as "the biggest challenge and the most outstanding technical development of Apollo." This engine was even used on Apollo 13 to help the astronauts return safely to Earth after their spacecraft was damaged.

After the Apollo missions, this engine was improved and became the TRW TR-201 engine. This engine was used in the Delta launch vehicle for 77 launches between 1972 and 1988.

TRW and Defense Weapons

In the mid-1960s, the United States started a program to create small, powerful automatic guns for new infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs). These guns were called Bushmaster.

TRW was one of the companies involved in developing these guns. Under the leadership of engineer Eugene Stoner, who designed the famous M16 rifle, TRW developed a 25 mm automatic cannon called the TRW model 6425. This gun used a system where gas from firing helped reload it.

The design of the TRW-6425 was later bought by another company, Oerlikon-Bührle. They improved it and made it as the Oerlikon KBA 25 mm cannon.

TRW and Computers

In 1954, the Ramo-Wooldridge Corp. started Pacific Semiconductors. Their goal was to make the newly invented transistor for sale.

In 1957, scientists at Pacific Semiconductors invented the Varicap (also called a varactor diode). This small device made radio tuners much smaller and removed the need for moving parts. It made remote control TV tuners much simpler! The inventors even won an Emmy Award in 2007 for this invention.

In 1959, the company made the RW-300, one of the first "all-transistor" computers. It was designed for controlling industrial processes. It weighed about 600 pounds (272 kg).

The TRW-130 computer was introduced in 1961. It was used by the U.S. Navy as part of its early satellite-based location system (before GPS). It could figure out a location in about 15 minutes.

The Transistor Transistor Logic (TTL) logic gate, which was a standard in electronics for 20 years, was invented by TRW's James L. Buie in 1961.

In 1965, TRW engineers developed a system to help the U.S. Army keep track of helicopter parts. This system later became the Pick operating system, which is still used today.

TRW LSI Products, Inc. was a TRW company that made computer chips. They produced some of the first commercially available digital signal processing chips. They also made the first 8-bit flash ADC (a chip that converts analog signals to digital ones), which won an Emmy Award for video conversion technology.

TRW in Music

TRW even had a record label called Bel Canto Stereophonic Recordings! It was active from the mid-1950s to the early 1960s.

TRW in Movies and TV

• In the TV show Mad Men, representatives from TRW's Space Technology Laboratories talk about their missile expertise.
• The Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Operation: Annihilate!" (1967) was filmed at the TRW campus in Redondo Beach, California.
• The 1999 movie Fight Club supposedly shows a TRW building being destroyed. This is because TRW was in the credit reporting business when the book was written.

Awards and Recognition

TRW and its teams received many awards for their work, especially in space and technology:

• 1974 - Nelson P. Jackson Aerospace Award for Pioneer 10
• 1978 - Nelson P. Jackson Aerospace Award for the HEAO Program
• 1988-1989 - Emmy Award for analog/digital video conversion technology
• 1990 - Goddard Award for Quality and Productivity
• 1992 - Nelson P. Jackson Aerospace Award for the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory
• 2001 - Nelson P. Jackson Aerospace Award for the Chandra X-ray Observatory
• 2004 - Nelson P. Jackson Aerospace Award for TDRSS (awarded to Northrop Grumman, formerly TRW)
• 2007 - Emmy Award for Varicap (awarded to Sycom, formerly Pacific Semiconductors)

See also

In Spanish: TRW para niños