John K(nudsen) Northrop

Aircraft designer and manufacturer, born in Newark, New Jersey, USA. He began as a project engineer for the Loughead Aircraft Co in 1916, continued with Douglas Aircraft Co, and was a co-founder and chief engineer of the Lockheed Aircraft Co of Burbank, CA (1927–8). He was vice-president and chief engineer of the Northrop Corporation, a subsidiary of Douglas Aircraft (1933–7), and became president and director of engineering of Northrop Aircraft Inc (1939–52). His company built military planes such as the P-61 Black Widow night fighter and the F-89 Scorpion jet and fighter.

Northrop's first job in aviation was in working for Loughead Aircraft Manufacturing Company (later Lockheed Corporation) in 1916.

In 1928, Northrop struck out on his own, founding the Avion Corporation, which Northrop was forced to sell to United Aircraft and Transport Corporation in 1930. In 1932, Northrop, backed by Donald Douglas of Douglas Aircraft, founded another company, the Northrop Corporation, in El Segundo, California. This company built two highly successful monoplanes, the Northrop Gamma and Northrop Delta.

By 1939, the Northrop Corporation had become a subsidiary of Douglas, so Northrop founded another completely independent company of the same name in Hawthorne, California. While working at this company, Northrop focused on the flying wing design, which he was convinced was the next major step in aircraft design. He produced a number of flying wings, including the Northrop N-1M, Northrop N-9M, Northrop YB-35, and Northrop YB-49.