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Thompson Ramo Wooldridge Inc.
TRW Inc., was an American conglomerate involved in a variety of businesses,
including aerospace, electronics and automotive,
founded in 1901 as Thompson Products. The company was a pioneer
in multiple fields, including electronic components, integrated circuits,
computers, software and engineering [1]. TRW is well-known for its spacecraft,
such as the Pioneer 1, Pioneer 10, a variety of communication satellites
and the descent engine (LMDE) for the Apollo lunar lander.
In 1958, Thompson Products merged with Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation to become
Thompson Ramo Wooldridge Inc. (TRW).
TRW's subsidiary Electronic Products, Inc. (EPI) was involved in the development and production of electronic devices, such as the
KL-43 portable message encryptor
which was used by the US Department of Defense and NATO.
It later emerged that between 1980 and 1984, EPI had been overcharging the
US Department of Defense, which TRW voluntarily reported.
On 3 September 1987, EPI pled guilty to 10 counts of false statements
and agreed to pay criminal fines totalling US$ 100,000,
plus US$ 4.1 million to settle certain civil and administrative claims [2].
TRW also made a good-faith payment of US$ 17 million as
restitution for estimated US Government losses in the matters.
As the matters had been disclosed voluntarily, TRW was not debarred
or suspended from government contracting [3].
On 3 July 1993, TRW's EPI subsidiary was acquired by
ETA Technologies Corporation (CA, USA).
In 2002, aerospace company Northrop Grumman purchased TRW and subsequently sold
TRW's automotive division to private equity firm Blackstone Group, which later
sold it to ZF Friedrichshafen (Germany). TRW veterans were involved in the
fouding of space corporations like SpaceX.
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TRW products on this website
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- The operating system of the company's RW-300 computer (1959) was the intelletual precursor of the RSX-11 operating system of the DEC PDF-11 computer.
- The Transistor-Transistor-Logic gate (TTL) was invented in 1961 by TRW's James L. Buie.
- The Varicap Diode, also known as Varactor Diode, was invented in 1957 by Howard Sachar and Sanford (Sandy) Barnes whilst working at Pacific Semiconductors — a company founded by Ramo-Wooldridge Corp. in 1954. It simplified the design of TV tuners.
- In the mid-1970s, TRW employee Christopher John Boyce was convicted of selling security secrets to the Soviet Union (USSR). Boyce and his accomplice Andrew Daulton Lee, were the subject of the 1979 book The Falcon and the Snowman by Robert Lindsey, followed in 1985 by a film of the same title.
- Episode Annihilate of the original Start Trek TV series season 1 was filmed at the (then) TRW campus (now: Northrop Grumman Space Park).
- TRW equipment and boxes were used as props in the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind (the scenes at Devils Tower).
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Name TRW Full Thompson Ramo Wooldridge Inc. Field Aerospace, automotive, electronics, software Founded 1901 Dissolved 2002 Successor TRW Automotive, Northrop Grumman, Goodrich Corporation Employees 122,258 (2000)
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- CAV
- Girling
- LucasVarity
- Lucas Aerospace
- TRW Electronic Products, Inc. (EPI)
- TRW LSI Products, Inc.
- Bel Canto Stereophonic Recordings
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© Crypto Museum. Created: Monday 02 June 2025. Last changed: Monday, 02 June 2025 - 07:29 CET.
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