Quoted from Magicman:Kinda wild that Amana was apparently a subsidiary of Raytheon according to this ad. Byproduct of weapons or aerospace engineering?
I did not notice that when I posted the picture. I worked for Raytheon for a few years. Raytheon bought out Olive Ann Beech (Beech co-founder along with here husband) but while she was still alive not much changed. I hired on as a airplane parts buyer in 1995. Not long after I hired on, Mrs. Beech died. Within 2 weeks of her death Raytheon change the name from Beech Aircraft to Raytheon Aircraft. Just the named change was a cluster.
The aircraft industry is very cyclical. When the airplane market is hot it is white and when things get slow, the aircraft market turns to ice cold. Mrs. Beech sold to Raytheon at the top of the market cycle ( for premium dollars, I suppose). Raytheon was losing is ass on the purchase and did some strange things to try to stop the losses it was dealing with.
Long story short, Beech is one of 2 or 3 acquisitions that Raytheon lost money on when the company managed to sell Beech to another outfit.
Outside of Beechcraft, Raytheon built missiles and other electronic gadgetry. I talk to one guy out at the smoke shack who was from the east coast who said Raytheon was highly involved with the drug interdiction action the U.S. was involved with.
I never made that connection. I do recall my best friend's mom talking not wanting to use a "radar range" in 1971. I don't think I ever heard that term used by anyone else. But it makes sense.