CAPABILITIES
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Year Published: 1950s
Format: 16mm
Description: This color educational/promotional film is about products made by Northrop Aircraft, Inc. and its various divisions, emphasizing the high tech manufacture and testing of components for aircraft and missiles. This is circa the late 1950s, as the Snark missile which is shown was deployed 1958-1961. Opening titles: Northrop Aircraft, Inc., Nortronics Division in Anaheim and Hawthorne, California, Radioplane in El Paso, Texas and Van Nuys, California, Northrop Division in Hawthorne (:06-:47). A Cushman scooter moves fast around the property, passes a Snark missile. Test Laboratories building. Test Laboratory. Engineers work inside. A model of a plane being tested in a wind tunnel and altitude chamber. Types of machines are tested: C-100s, electro-hydraulic shaker machines. Men draw up planes in an office. Contour milling equipment. Infrared lamps heat metals for stamping..Autoclaves. Boeing KC-135 wing panels are being made (:48-3:15). Automation. Machines work, men write things down. A profile mill. A press machine. Verson machine. Stretch presses. Big sub assemblies. Pieces of USAF Boeing KC-135 and 707s. Men at machines doing all sorts of work. Sheets of metal being pulled off a machine. Women sew. F-89 Scorpion jet comes off assembly line. A Snark intercontinental missile is rolled out at Hawthorne (3:16-4:57). A Hawk anti-aircraft missile is fired in the desert. It hits a test plane and explodes. P-61 Black Widow airplanes. F-89 Scorpion. Smoke plume in the sky. Intercontinental Weapons System. Snark missile in the sky. T-38 twin engine jet trainer is rolled out of a hangar. Atomic mushroom cloud in the air from an atomic rocket test (5:40). N-156 fighter is shown being rolled out of a hangar. Another jet is rolled out (4:58-6:38). A test plane goes fast in the desert. A missile lands. Experimental planes fly. John Paul Stapp rides the Sonic Wind rocket sled (7:09). Research, engineering, and manufacturing teams of Northrop. A Snark is launched with JATO assist, and the rockets fall away as they are expended. Outer space (6:39-7:51). End credits (7:52-7:56). The Northrop SM-62 Snark was an early-model intercontinental range ground-launched cruise missile that could carry a W39 thermonuclear warhead.
Complete Record:
Transcription
this is the Northrop organization the North ronix division Anaheim and Hawthorne guidance and flight control systems weapons system support equipment radio plane division van nuys california and El Paso Texas targets for training and weapons system evaluation surveillance drones parachute deceleration and recovery systems the Northrop division hawthorne weapons system prime contractor of aircraft and missiles with these autonomous specializing divisions Northrop aircraft Incorporated is organized for better service in the defense of the United States and the free world the continuing program of expansion has added many new facilities to the Northrop division an engine test cell in which the largest jet engine so far programmed can be run snark missile countdown check out an engine run buildings new headquarters for the test laboratories engineering effort concentrated in a compact efficient functionally designed center the divisions test laboratories are among the most complete on the west coast they are available to the other divisions and to industry at large a variety of specialized installations are required to qualify today's aircraft and missile components for extreme operational environments for such testing the Northrop division is exceptionally well equipped it has seven temperature altitude chambers ranging to 11 feet in diameter into the three largest both high and low pressure air can be introduced one clam shell type chamber is assigned to electrical systems test 15 electro dynamic shakers are available including to see 100s in addition there are five Northrop designed electro-hydraulic shakers Manufacturing's research and development continues advances into the most modern and efficient production methods in the adhesive bonding area or quality mass production honeycomb stamping and contour milling equipment autoclaves to handle the largest sandwiches including components for the t-38 the Boeing 707 and kc-135 and the snark sm 62 in the forming shops infrared lamps heat exotic metals to stamping temperatures in a few seconds big machines on big jobs in big areas these are the drive Matic automatic riveters this one turning out Boeing Airplane Company kc-135 wing panels increasing automation is one key to the divisions production efficiency big machines big jobs profile mills presses presses of all kinds and sizes Burson wheel ons stretch presses stretch presses for sheet stock stretch presses for extrusions this hufford is one of the biggest big parts for big sub assemblies big sub-assemblies for big aircraft Boeing kc-135s and 707s the background of skills accumulated over nearly 20 years of uninterruptedly gives Northrop a unique record of delivery of components and complete weapon systems contributing to is the divisions pace program a model for the aircraft industry a management tool to measure group effectiveness and provide close surveillance of trends which may affect the divisions record as a low-cost producer from these production lines have come over a thousand f-89 s at a cost per pound among the lowest in the industry also from the Hawthorne production lines on schedule and on budget came the snark the first successful intercontinental missile weapon system thoroughly proven in an exhaustive flight test program and now ready for sac squadrons now in the inventory of the army the hawk missile further adds to nor tronics background in modern weapons technology from Norton's 1939 for the free world Northrop has been a builder of firsts the p-61 black widow first radar-equipped night fighter flying laboratories that have advanced the aeronautical sciences the f-89 scorpion first twin-engine all-weather interceptor the first to carry an air-to-air atomic rocket the first intercontinental missile weapons system the only one ready to deliver a nuclear warhead now the first fully automatic guidance system which sees and tracks the daytime stars and guides the snark to pinpoint destinations anyplace in the world the t-38 twin-engine jet trainer it's geometry proven by the most extensive wind tunnel testing ever given an aircraft before flight under parallel development the N 156 fighter for the defense of our allies against the supersonic threats such firsts and the classified products they imply are reflections of a management policy of long-range planning towards economical and reliable hardware from original concepts basic research and the fullest exploitation of the latest advances in the state of the art whether it be the design manufacture and management of complete weapon systems for the production of aircraft missiles or electronic components and subsystems the research engineering and manufacturing teams that make up the Northrop aircraft incorporated complex are ready to meet any challenge on the ever expanding horizons of man in the still to be known environments into which he must go his guidance his survival is in the hands of the scientist the engineer and the Builder who is a breast or a head of his art and his time
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