curtis wright . the neutrality of the style of writing in this article is questioned . please see the discussion on the talk page . march 2016 curtiss wright corporation type public traded as nyse cw industry commercial aerospace defense oil and gas nuclear power generation general industrial and other various industry predecessor curtiss aeroplane and motor company wright aeronautical and related companies founded buffalo new york 1929 headquarters charlotte north carolina us key people david c. adams chairman and ceo products valves pumps motors generators instrumentation controls actuation sensors embedded computing surface treatment services revenue us 2.51 billion fy 2013 1 operating income us 234 million number of employees 10 000 2013 divisions commercial industrial defense energy website www.curtisswright.com the curtiss wright corporation is an american based global diversified product manufacturer and service provider for the commercial industrial defense and energy markets . born in 1929 from the consolidation of curtiss aeroplane and motor company wright aeronautical originally founded by glenn l. martin and the wright brothers as wright martin and various supplier companies by the end of world war ii it was the largest aircraft manufacturer in the united states supplying whole aircraft in large numbers to the u.s. armed forces . it has since evolved away from final assembly of finished aircraft becoming a component manufacturer specializing in actuators aircraft controls valves and surface treatment services . it also is a supplier to commercial nuclear power nuclear navy systems industrial vehicles and to the oil and gas industries . contents 1 history 1.1 merger and expansion 1.2 defective parts sold to u.s. military in world war ii 1.3 post world war ii 2 products 2.1 aircraft 2.2 curtiss electric propellers 3 see also 4 references 4.1 notes 4.2 bibliography 5 external links history edit merger and expansion edit curtiss wright came into existence on july 5 1929 the result of a merger of 12 companies associated with curtiss aeroplane and motor company of buffalo new york and wright aeronautical of dayton ohio 3 and was headquartered in buffalo new york . with 75 million in capital 1.05 billion in 2015 dollars 4 it was the largest aviation company in the country . companies merged 5 owner wright aeronautical corp hoyt curtiss aeroplane & motor co keys curtiss airports corp. keys curtiss flying service keys curtiss aeroplane export co. keys curtiss caproni corp. keys curtiss robertson airplane mfg. co. keys new york air terminals hoyt n.y. & suburban airlines hoyt keystone aircraft corp hoyt there were three main divisions the curtiss wright airplane division which manufactured airframes ; the wright aeronautical corporation which produced aircraft engines ; and the curtiss wright propeller division which manufactured propellers . after 1929 most engines produced by the new company were known as wrights while most aircraft were given the curtiss name with a few exceptions . throughout the 1930s curtiss wright designed and built aircraft for military commercial and private markets . but it was the wright engine division and the longstanding relationship with the us military that would help the company through the difficult years of the great depression . in 1937 the company developed the p 36 fighter aircraft resulting in the largest peacetime aircraft order ever given by the army air corps . curtiss wright also sold the p 36 abroad where they were used in the early days of world war ii . during world war ii curtiss wright produced 142 840 aircraft engines 146 468 electric propellers and 29 269 airplanes . 3 curtiss wright employed 180 000 workers and ranked second among united states corporations in the value of wartime production contracts behind only general motors . 6 7 curtiss wright building at caldwell new jersey in 1941 . curtiss wright biggest aviation company expands its empire . an overall perspective of how curtiss wright stretches from st. louis to buffalo and how its products flow from the factories to the u.s. aircraft industry . notably the map gets several things wrong particularly the location of c 46 production which was at buffalo not st. louis . from life magazine september 15 1941 . 8 aircraft production included almost 14 000 p 40 fighters made famous by their use by claire chennault s flying tigers in china over 3 000 c 46 commando transport aircraft and later in the war over 7 000 sb2c helldivers . its most visible success came with the p 40 variously known as the tomahawk kittyhawk and warhawk which were built between 1940 and 1944 at the main production facilities in buffalo new york . during the war a second large plant was added at buffalo followed by new plants at columbus ohio ; st. louis missouri ; and louisville kentucky . engine and propeller production was at plants in new jersey pennsylvania and ohio . in may 1942 the u.s. government assigned curtiss wright a defense production factory for wartime aircraft construction at louisville kentucky to produce the c 76 caravan cargo plane which was constructed mostly of wood a non priority war material . however after difficulties with the c 76 including a crash of a production model in mid 1943 as well as the realization that sufficient quantities of aluminum aircraft alloys would be available for war production plans for large scale c 76 production were rejected . 9 the louisville plant was converted to c 46 commando production eventually delivering 438 commandos to supplement the roughly 2 500 c 46s produced at buffalo . the c 46 cargo plane was fitted with two powerful radial engines and could carry more cargo at higher altitudes than any other allied aircraft . consequently it was used extensively in the china burma india theater . defective parts sold to u.s. military in world war ii edit from 1941 to 1943 the curtiss aeronautical plant in lockland ohio produced aircraft engines under wartime contract destined for installation in u.s. army air forces aircraft . 10 11 wright officials at lockland insisted on high engine production levels resulting in a significant percentage of engines that did not meet army air forces aaf inspection standards . these defective engines were nevertheless approved by inspectors for shipment and installation in u.s. military aircraft . after investigation it was later revealed that wright company officials at lockland had conspired with civilian technical advisers and army inspection officers to approve substandard or defective aircraft engines for military use . 10 11 army air forces technical adviser charles w. bond was dismissed by the army in 1943 for gross irregularities in inspection procedure . 12 bond would later testify that he had been wined and dined by wright company officials ; one of those occasions was the night before bond fired four aaf engine inspectors another aaf inspector had described as troublemakers . 12 in 1944 three army officers lt. col. frank constantine greulich of detroit former chief inspection officer for the material command major walter a. ryan of detroit former central states inspection officer and major william bruckmann a former cincinnati brewer and resident army inspections officer at the wright plant in lockland were charged with neglect of duty conspiracy and giving false testimony in a general court martial . 13 14 15 all three men were later convicted of neglect of duty . 15 the story of defective engines had reached investigators working for sen. harry truman s congressional investigative board the truman commission after several wright aircraft assembly workers informed on the company ; they would later testify under oath before congress . 10 11 16 arthur miller s play all my sons is based on this incident . 17 in 2011 columnist richard j. eskow senior fellow with the campaign for america s future and columnist for the huffington post alleged that his uncle jack temple died in world war ii . 18 temple s death in a military bomber crash was allegedly tied to engine failure due to improper manufacture and or assembly ; the engines had passed inspection even though they were defective . 18 eskow referenced a 2006 article by sarah anderson that appeared in the st. louis post dispatch and on alternet . 19 anderson had alleged that curtiss wright had sold leaky motors to the government and covered it up with forged inspection reports . as a result of the investigation wrote anderson heads rolled at curtiss wright and one general wound up in prison . 19 post world war ii edit curtiss wright failed to make the transition to design and production of jet aircraft despite several attempts . during the war the company had expended only small amounts on aircraft research and development instead concentrating on incremental improvements in conventional aircraft already in wartime production . this was especially true in the first two years of the war . curtiss failure to research and develop more advanced wing and airframe designs provided an opening for north american bell lockheed northrop and other u.s. aircraft manufacturers to submit newer and more advanced aircraft designs . the p 60 the firm s last prop driven fighter design was merely an extrapolation of its 1930s p 36 hawk offering no advantage over other designs already in service . with the rapid development of jet engine technology and near supersonic flight this technological lag resulted in curtiss losing a number of critical postwar military aircraft orders . the final nail in the coffin was the choice of the northrop f 89 scorpion over the xf 87 blackhawk ; after the f 87 was cancelled october 10 1948 curtiss wright shut down its entire aeroplane division and sold the assets to north american aviation . while this marked curtiss wright s departure from preeminence in the aviation industry one notable spin off involved curtiss wright s flight research laboratory founded in 1943 near the main plant at the buffalo airport . during divestiture of the airframe division the lab was given to cornell university along with a cash gift to finish construction of a transonic wind tunnel . cornell aeronautical labs or cal as it was known was eventually spun off from the university as a private company calspan corporation which has been responsible for many subsequent innovations in flight and safety research . for an aircraft company that failed largely due to lack of sufficient research and development during world war ii it is ironic that curtiss wright s flight research division was one of the few parts of the once huge aviation conglomerate to survive to the present day . after the government gave the development of the whittle jet engine to ge the company concentrated on reciprocating engines and propeller production for military transport and civilian airliners . with the approaching twilight of the big piston aircraft engine curtiss wright needed new design inspiration . in 1950 curtiss wright licensed the sapphire jet engine from armstrong siddeley in the u.k and manufactured it as the wright j65 . it powered models of the martin b 57 and several other u.s. fighter planes . subsequent derivative engines were late and did not find substantial markets . for a brief time curtiss wright licensed rights to the wankel rotary engine from nsu in 1958 as a possible aircraft power plant . for this major innovative engineering project curtiss wright relied extensively on the design leadership of nsu wankel engineer max bentele . in 1954 united airlines bought four curtiss wright flight simulators at a cost of 3 million . these simulators were like earlier ones produced in the late 1940s for airliners with the addition of visuals sound and movement . they were the first of today s modern flight simulators for commercial aircraft . 20 curtiss wright travel air cw 12q at cotswold airport gloucestershire england in 1956 financially strapped automaker studebaker packard corporation entered into a management agreement with curtiss wright as a means for the nation s fifth largest automobile manufacturer to avoid insolvency . the