Garrett AiResearch
Allied Signal | |
Headquarters | , United States |
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Key people |
Garrett AiResearch was a manufacturer of
Founding years
John Clifford "Cliff" Garrett founded a company in Los Angeles in 1936 which came to be known as Garrett AiResearch or simply AiResearch.[5] The company was first named Aircraft Tool and Supply Company. In early 1937, it was renamed as Garrett Supply Company. In 1939, it became AiResearch and shortly thereafter AiResearch Manufacturing Company, which then became a division within the Garrett Corporation.[6][7] Already operating his Garrett Supply and Airsupply businesses, in 1939 Cliff Garrett established a small research laboratory to conduct "air research" on the development of pressurized flight for passenger aircraft.[8] "[AiResearch's] first 'lab' was a small store building on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles".[9]
In 1939, Garrett incorporated the "Garrett Corporation" and the three operating companies became divisions: Airsupply Division, Garrett Supply Division, and AiResearch Manufacturing Division. Needing additional space, they built their own manufacturing facility in Glendale, California, and thereby established the name AiResearch Manufacturing Company. By 1941, AiResearch needed new space, and on April 28, 1941, moved from Glendale to what until then had been a beanfield on Sepulveda Boulevard, at the corner of Century Boulevard near Mines Field, which later became Los Angeles Airport.[10]
In 1942, the Army Air Force concluded that vital cabin pressurization manufacturing facilities should be relocated inland from the coast, and AiResearch set up the AiResearch Phoenix Division in Phoenix, Arizona.[9] For this purpose, AiResearch Manufacturing Company of Arizona was established as a wholly owned subsidiary.[11]
History
1939 through 1949
The company's first major product was an oil cooler for military aircraft. Garrett designed and produced oil coolers for the Douglas
Having to scale back its workforce to just 600 employees at the end of the war stimulated Garrett to look for new revenue sources. "He found them in the small turbines which patient Engineer Walter Ramsaur had been perfecting since 1943. A way had to be found to cool cockpits so jet pilots could endure the heat generated by air friction at supersonic speeds. Ramsaur's turbine provided the answer. By putting an engine's heat to work turning the turbine, it cooled the air by expanding it, then injected the air into the cockpit. As rearmament got under way, Garrett began turning out a total of 700 accessory products. With the Navy order for [an on-board engine] self-starter, [by 1951] Garrett Corp. [had] a $120 million backlog, enough to keep 5,500 workers on three shifts busy for at least the next three years".[14]
By the end of the 1940s, Garrett Corporation was listed on the
1950s and 1960s
By 1949, the Sepulveda Blvd. property was increasingly constrained by the demand for development of commercial space near the fast-growing Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). At that time, 2,000 people worked at the facility "and Garrett was ranked one of the top three aircraft accessory manufacturers in the world".[16] In 1959 ground was broken for construction of an additional facility at 190th Street and Crenshaw Boulevard in Torrance, California. Part of that facility was occupied in 1960. "By 1962, 1000 employees were working at the Torrance location and by 1972, 3000 employees were based there".[17] After a gradual series of moves, the Sepulveda facility was closed in 1990.[18]
During the 1950s AiResearch initiated activities in the field of aircraft electronics, "first with an
In the 1950s and 1960s Garrett pioneered the development of
On the industrial side, the first T-15 turbocharger was delivered to the Caterpillar Company in 1955.[22] It was followed by an order for 5,000 production units, to be installed in the Caterpillar D9 tractor. "On September 27, 1954, Cliff Garrett made the decision to separate the turbocharger group from the gas turbine department due to commercial diesel turbocharger opportunities. That was the beginning of the new AiResearch Industrial Division for turbocharger design and manufacturing". This new division was established in Phoenix, Arizona.[23] AiResearch Industrial Division ("AID") would later be renamed Garrett Automotive.
Following the first phase of the Caterpillar project, Garrett turbochargers saw wider use on earth-moving equipment, in tractors, stationary powerplants, railroad locomotives and ships. The Garrett T11 automotive turbocharger came into being in 1960 and promptly became popular with diesel truck operators.
By 1962, Garrett was powering the world’s first turbocharged production car, the Oldsmobile Jetfire Rocket. This was followed by several other firsts, including the first turbocharged car to win the Indianapolis 500 (1968), the first turbo for a non-sports car application (1977-Saab 99), the first mass production turbo for diesel engines (1978-Mercedes 300SD), and the first turbo to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans (1978-Renault)".[24][25]
1970s
In the 1970s Garrett's expanding industrial and other non-military applications had changed the basic sources of income. "At the start of the decade sales to the military accounted for 70 percent of the company's business. At the end of the ten years, largely because of turbochargers and general aviation products, the situation was reversed. Commercial sales made up 70 percent; military had dropped to 30 percent".[26] By the end of the 1970s "sales had reached $1.3 billion; backlog was $1.9 billion".[26]
Mergers
To avoid a hostile takeover of Garrett's assets by Curtiss-Wright following Cliff Garrett's death in 1963, Garrett Corporation merged with the Signal Oil and Gas Company in 1964.[27] In 1968, the combined company adopted The Signal Companies as its corporate name.[28]
In 1985, Signal merged with
Part of the original Garrett AiResearch became known as the Garrett Turbine Engine Company from 1979, and became the Garrett Engine Division of AlliedSignal in 1985. In 1994, AlliedSignal acquired the Lycoming Turbine Engine Division of Textron, merging it with Garrett Engine to become the AlliedSignal Engines Division of AlliedSignal Aerospace Company.[30]
Another part of Garrett AiResearch,The Garrett Aviation Division ("Garrett Aviation"),
Products
Aircraft
Engines
Turboprops
- Garrett TPE331
- Garrett TPF351
Turbofans
- CFE CFE738
- Garrett ATF3
- Garrett F109
- Garrett/ITEC F124/TFE1042
- Garrett/ITEC F125
- Garrett TFE731
See also
- Central Air Data Computer
- Normalair Garrett Limited (NGL)
References
Notes
- ISBN 9780850451634.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 28, 2020.
- ^ "AlliedSignal Acquires Honeywell For $13.8 Billion". Aviation Week & Space Technology. Retrieved January 28, 2020.
- ^ "AlliedSignal to Acquire Honeywell for $13.8 Billion". Los Angeles Times. June 7, 1999. Retrieved January 28, 2020.
- ^ "Built on Thin Air", Time, November 16, 1962
- ^ Seymour L. Chapin, "Garrett and Pressurized Flight: A Business Built on Thin Air", Pacific Historical Review 35 (August 1966): 329-343
- ISBN 0-9617029-0-7).
- ^ Garrett AiResearch "AiReporter", October 1969, p. 3.
- ^ a b c d AiReporter, cited previously.
- ^ This facility remained open until 1990, when operations were consolidated at previous facilities in Torrance, California. "Relocations from Sepulveda Facility", "Spectrum", Allied Signal, December 1990.
- ^ Schoneberger and Scholl, cited previously, p. 67.
- ^ Schoneberger and Scholl, p. 62.
- ^ "Business: Mighty Might", Time, October 29, 1951.
- ^ See "Business: Mighty Might", cited previously.
- ^ "turbochargedpower.com". www1.turbochargedpower.com. Archived from the original on October 19, 2008.
- ^ "Spectrum", cited previously.
- ^ "Spectrum", cited earlier.
- ^ "During this time, the Sepulveda property was under continual siege by the L.A. Department of Airports, the L.A. Planning Commission and others, desperate for this valuable piece of real estate. Offers received never came close to the property's true value. The early '60s brought the Dept. of Airports' first condemnation suit. ... Finding a buyer with a fair price, Allied Signal decided in Fall 1987 to close the Sepulveda plant". "Spectrum", cited previously.
- ^ Fallon, Sarah. "The Secret History of the First Microprocessor, the F-14, and Me". Wired.
- ^ "History of Allied Signal Engines – FundingUniverse". www.fundinguniverse.com.
- ^ M. A. Barnett and A. Silver, "Application of Air Bearings to High-Speed Turbomachinery", Society of Automotive Engineers International, Technical Paper No. 700720 (September 1970), available at sae.org; Scholer Bangs, "Foil Bearings Help Air Passengers Keep their Cool", Power Transmission Design (February 1973).
- ^ "Honeywell Celebrates 100 Years of Turbo; 50th Year of Garrett Turbocharged Vehicle", Wagner Tech's Mopar Blog, August 2, 2005.
- ^ "turbochargedpower.com". www1.turbochargedpower.com. Archived from the original on October 19, 2008.
- ^ "Honeywell Heritage: A Hallmark Throughout Turbo History " Booster Online". Honeywellbooster.com. Retrieved October 28, 2009.
- ^ Industry firsts (turbo) [retrieved online May 27, 2012].
- ^ a b Schoneberger and Scholl, p. 228.
- ^ Leyes, p. 611-12
- ^ "History.htm History of Honeywell". Archived from the original on May 23, 2009.
- ^ "Home | Honeywell". www.honeywell.com. Archived from the original on June 21, 2008.
- ^ Leyes, p. 725
- ^ "StandardAero". Garrettaviation.com. October 19, 2009. Retrieved October 28, 2009.
- ^ "StandardAero". StandardAero. October 19, 2009. Retrieved October 28, 2009.
- ^ "Dubai Aerospace Buys Standard Aero, Landmark for $1.9B", Defense Industry Daily, August 2, 2007.
- ^ "BBA Aviation to Buy Landmark Aviation for $2.1 Billion". The New York Times. September 23, 2015. Retrieved March 20, 2018.
Bibliography
- Gunston, Bill (2006). World Encyclopedia of Aero Engines, 5th Edition. Phoenix Mill, Gloucestershire, England, UK: Sutton Publishing Limited. ISBN 0-7509-4479-X.
- Leyes II, Richard A.; William A. Fleming (1999). "10". The History of North American Small Gas Turbine Aircraft Engines. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution. p. 725. ISBN 1-56347-332-1.