When Northrop Grumman acquired TRW in 2002, it absorbed the cleared personnel, facilities, security infrastructure and classified space programs built there over decades. The same engineers and research groups had already passed through Douglas, RAND, Hughes, Lockheed, TRW and Northrop as contracts moved and companies were reorganized or acquired. William Tompkins’ forty-year aerospace career runs through that chain. From 1942 to 1946, he served on Admiral Rico Botta’s staff, distributing Nav...

Archival TRW films promoting its work in satellites, missile defense, computing and advanced aircraft. The full report follows William Tompkins through Northrop, Douglas, Lockheed and TRW, and examines what Northrop inherited when the deal closed in 2002.