Obituary: Northrop’s Tom Jones

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Ralph Vartabedian, Tom Jones, Aerospace Executive Who Led Northrop Grumman, Dies at 93. Los Angeles Times, Jan 8, 2014.
www.latimes.com/obituaries/la-fi ... dies-at-93-20140108,0,1107216.story

Note:
(a) "Jones was at Northrop’s helm for 30 years and came to personify the maverick aerospace company and the airplanes it produced, transforming the company from a minor player into one of the world’s leading prime contractors and one of its most important technological giants."
(i) Northrop Corporation
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Corporation
(1939-1994 when merged with Grumman; founder Jack Northrop)
(ii) The English surname Northrop (Northrup as a varian): "from Northorpe in the former East Riding of Yorkshire, named with Old Norse norðr or Old English norþ ‘north’ + þorp or þrop ‘dependent outlying farmstead’, ‘hamlet’"
(iii) Thomas Jones (1920-2014) joined the Northrop Corporation in 1953 and was CEO (1960-1989 when he retired)--"a 39-year career with Northrop."

(b) "Early in his career, he championed the T-38 trainer jet and transformed it into a low-cost fighter that the U.S. exported to its allies. It became the Volkswagen Beetle of jet fighters, used by countries far and wide, from Norway to Turkey and from Chile to Sudan. Early jets cost only $750,000 and their simplicity made them the weapon of choice for nations that wanted an air force but could not afford front-line weapons."

Northrop T-38 Talon
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_T-38_Talon
(two-seat, twin-engine; world's first supersonic trainer and is also the most produced; Introduced 1961; section 4 Operators [current]: Taiwan, US Air Force, Navy and NASA)

(c) "But he also was responsible for some shortsighted mistakes, spending $2 billion to develop the F-20 jet and failing to get a single foreign or domestic order. The U.S. blocked the sale of the jet to Taiwan as relations between the US and China thawed in the 1980s."

Northrop F-20 Tigershark
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_F-20_Tigershark
(initially F-5G; Carter personally blocked the sales of the F-5G to Taiwan; The signing of the 1982 US-PRC Joint Communiqué was a major agreement on arms sales, which continued blocking sales of the F-5G to Taiwan; Status  Canceled; Number built 3)