Aerojet-General Corp - Space Race and Vietnam

Space Race and Vietnam

In the 1960s, Aerojet built a plant near the Everglades to supply NASA with solid fuel rockets. It was closed after NASA chose liquid fuel for the Saturn V program.

Aerojet powered many of the rockets used in the Apollo program, culminating in the first moon landing on July 20, 1969. The company was also developing its microwave and infrared sensing systems, used to monitor weather and the environment from satellites. At the same time, Aerojet was mass producing rockets and other ordnance for the Vietnam Conflict.

Employment fell to 8,000 by the early 1970s. Aerojet worked with Textron Inc. unit Bell Aerospace Co. to develop a pair of experimental surface-effect ships for the U.S. Navy in the early 1970s, but dropped out of the program.

More enduring were contracts for the Combined Effects Munitions program and 30mm ammunition. Aerojet began producing depleted uranium rounds after the 1976 acquisition of a factory in Jonesborough, Tennessee.

Aerojet-General Corp. earned $25.5 million on revenues of $670 million in 1975. Aerojet had 14 operating companies, according to Business Week, including Aerojet Electrosystems, Barnard & Burk Inc. (energy-related construction and engineering), Chemical Construction Corp., CESSCO (oil tanks), Cordova Chemical Co., Howe Richardson Scale Co., and Liquid Rocket Co. Aerojet acquired Chemical Construction Corp., a builder of natural gas plants, in a bid to diversify from government defense contracts. Other subsidiaries produced chemicals, pumps, and valves. A food flavorings unit, H.A. Johnson Co., was sold to Sands, Taylor & Wood of Cambridge, Massachusetts, in February 1975.

Company President Jack H. Vollbrecht embraced an "80-20" system, reported Business Week, urging managers to spend most of their time on the most important matters. Jack L. Heckel replaced Vollbrecht as president in 1981, and was named chairman and CEO in 1984.