Why North American Aviation failed ?

doolyii

doolyii

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It comes to my attention that NAA's achievement upto 60-70s wasn't bad, even after successful P-51 / F-86 / F-100 series production. What made that company eventually disappear ?
 
Cancellation of the XB-70 and XF-108 were big factors in the companies decline as well as the YF-107 losing to the YF-105.
 
The lost of the F-X to McDonnell Douglas was probably the nail in the coffin.
 
Not to mention the XFV-12A debacle... ::)
 
During the time that NAA was merged out of existence the aerospace industry became pretty much feast or famine. Remember back in day when the USN flew five different subsonic swept wing fighters at the same time? When aircraft were good for front line service for 10 years max? Now, if win a contract you are good for 25 years or more. If not, you will be lucky to subcontract landing gear doors for your competitor. Like the auto industry you have an enormous amount of capital and time that goes into a design, and you may not see another for the remainder of your working life.
 
There was also the end of the Apollo program and the completion of the space shuttles for NASA. North American Aviation merged with Rockwell-Standard in 1967, becoming North American Rockwell. The name of the company was changed again to Rockwell International in 1973.

During the 1980's, Rockwell International was the country's largest defense contractor. With the end of the Cold War and lower defense spending, Rockwell International decided to divest its companies. It sold its defense and aviation businesses to Boeing in 1996.
 
royabulgaf said:
Remember back in day when the USN flew five different subsonic swept wing fighters at the same time?
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Yeah! It does seem weird now that the F-100, F-101, F-104, F-105 and F-106 could all have been operational at the same time... but it's also called "not putting all one's eggs in one basket", something that the industry has forgotten to do. Now they want the do-all Swiss knife-type aircraft to fit all missions, all terrains, all services... and so it takes a lot more time to be developed, produced, serviced and deployed...
 
I remember Linebacker II with its B52 F4 F105G A6 A7 and others .
 
Triton said:
During the 1980's, Rockwell International was the country's largest defense contractor.
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General Dynamics dwarfed them. GD was building M1 Abrams, F-16s, Ohios, 688s etc.
 
one mayor reason for NAA decline
was that management focus on Space hardware, after failure of XB-70, F-108 Contracts.
in begin it work with Saturn S-II and Apollo CSM, but in end Apollo was terminate with shutdown of Saturn V production
and promise to build a shuttle fleet, ended with 4 and 1backup build from leftover parts !


interesting fact NAA / rockwell the only company, those spacecraft have kill astronauts (X-15, Apollo Shuttle)
 
Triton said:
There was also the end of the Apollo program and the completion of the space shuttles for NASA. North American Aviation merged with Rockwell-Standard in 1967, becoming North American Rockwell. The name of the company was changed again to Rockwell International in 1973.
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To be painfully accurate, the name was changed from North American Rockwell to Rockwell International in 1973 after NAR was merged with Rockwell Manufacturing, run by Willard F. Rockwell Jr. (the son of Willard F. Rockwell who controlled Rockwell Standard.)
 
From someone who was there in LA during the 1950's and 1960's was a claim of internal rot, with managers looking to prune the most competent under them in order not to be displaced. This is hearsay, take it with a large grain of salt.
 
Airplane project can succeed or fail to win project, but not necessarily killing company, Northrop hardly won any major contract (since F-5, what else? except major subcontracting F-18 (after lost legal battle), and not so cheap B-2), but they still somehow managed to get by (good business management?).


Mighty Douglas failed before merger. Mcdonnel Douglas with F-4, F-15, F-18, Harrier, Goshawk..still failed. Wasn't there 100% company killer (Complacency, arrogance etc) eventually rotten its core from inside before external business environment eventually killed it ?
 
In a diversification move, Rockwell International purchased Admiral Radio and TV in 1973 for $500 million. In 1979, it sold its appliance division to Magic Chef.
 
Reading Wiki too? *chuckle* Yes, diversification was a very smart move...at the time. In hindsight, not so much.

RI diversified into domestic manufacture of consumer electronics (TVs, washers) and got deeper into automotive supply (axles and such) - both of which started to crater in the late 70's and early 80's. By then, the company was managed as an industrial conglomerate with several troublesome aerospace operations (not the other way around).
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Aviation - the story of North American !
 
aim9xray said:
Reading Wiki too? *chuckle* Yes, diversification was a very smart move...at the time. In hindsight, not so much.

RI diversified into domestic manufacture of consumer electronics (TVs, washers) and got deeper into automotive supply (axles and such) - both of which started to crater in the late 70's and early 80's. By then, the company was managed as an industrial conglomerate with several troublesome aerospace operations (not the other way around).
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Hell, in the late 80s they (Rockwell Int'l) even bought a sand/gravel/concrete company. I remember when they solicited employees to buy extra shares of that venture. Also heard second hand of an instance when one of the bigwigs of the aerospace sector flew on the corporate helicopter to Seal Beach and asked a colleague what a Mach number was.
 

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