Word: ramos
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Aircraft Co.; a few months later Wooldridge left Bell to join the fun. In short order, Ramo and Wooldridge developed an electronic fire-control system for the U.S. Air Force which was so good that it became standard equipment on every first-line interceptor. Another spectacular coup was the air-to-air Falcon guided missile to track and destroy enemy planes. When the Korean war sent orders surging through the industry, Hughes was transformed into an electronics giant with sales of $200 million annually...
...height of their success, Ramo and Wooldridge suddenly walked out. Partly, it was because of a bitter fight (TIME, Oct. 5, 1953) over how much authority they should have in company policy. Partly, too, they wanted to move on to bigger and better projects by themselves. Says Wooldridge: "Our product was scientific and engineering competence. What we hoped to sell was the ability to tackle some of the more difficult technical problems-not just establish that they were scientifically possible, but that they could be built within the state...
...first office and sat down to draw up a list of possible financial backers. The first name was Cleveland's Thompson Products, Inc., which already had its foot in the electronics door with a parts subcontract for Hughes's Falcon missile. As soon as Thompson heard from Ramo and Wooldridge. it told them to look no farther-just hurry to Cleveland to work out the financing details. Though Howard Hughes offered to help finance their new venture, it was too late...
...exchange for 3,500 shares of preferred stock (87½%) and 24,500 shares (49%) of Ramo-Wooldridge's common stock, the remainder of which the two scientists kept for themselves and future staffers, Thompson put an initial $400,000 into the baby corporation. Within a week R-W got its first Air Force study contract for a secret project, quickly picked up more such contracts. Three months later R-W was in the black...
Made to Order. Their technical reputations grew so fast that when the Government asked the late great Mathematician John Von Neumann to set up a committee to study the future development of strategic guided missiles, Ramo and Wooldridge were picked as members. The committee decided that the ICBM could be built, turned over its report to the Government which felt that it was too big a job for one company or for the Air Force to handle alone. What was needed was a unique setup-a new civilian technical group that could work under the Air Force and supervise...