--- aliases: - Aerojet - Aerojet Engineering Corporation - Aerojet Engineering Corp. - Aerojet Engineering Company - Aerojet-General - Aerojet-General Corporation - Aerojet General - Aerojet Rocketdyne - Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings - GenCorp - GenCorp Inc. category: Private Organization created: 2026-10-05 location: Pasadena, California; Azusa, California; Sacramento, California relations: - fn: 1 reverse: true role: incorporator and first president of Aerojet Engineering Corporation start: 1942-03-19 type: founded with: '[[Theodore von Kármán]]' - fn: 1 reverse: true role: incorporator, treasurer and director start: 1942-03-19 type: founded with: '[[Frank Malina]]' - fn: 1 reverse: true role: incorporator and vice president, solid-propellant development start: 1942-03-19 type: founded with: '[[Jack Parsons]]' - fn: 1 reverse: true role: incorporator and vice president start: 1942-03-19 type: founded with: '[[Edward Forman]]' - fn: 1 reverse: true role: incorporator and vice president start: 1942-03-19 type: founded with: '[[Martin Summerfield]]' - fn: 1 reverse: true role: incorporator, secretary and director start: 1942-03-19 type: founded with: '[[Andrew Haley]]' - fn: 5 reverse: true role: president and general manager after release from Army Air Forces duty start: 1942-09-01 type: head_of with: '[[Andrew Haley]]' - fn: 2 role: jet-assisted takeoff (JATO) rocket research and production start: 1942 type: contractor_to with: '[[United States Army Air Forces]]' - fn: 5 role: ordered JATO motors from Aerojet in the summer of 1942 start: 1942 type: contractor_to with: '[[United States Navy]]' - fn: 6 reverse: true role: purchased Aerojet Engineering Corporation in 1945 and became its major investor start: 1945 type: owned with: '[[General Tire & Rubber Company]]' - fn: 17 reverse: true role: acquired Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings by merger at 58 dollars a share in cash start: 2023-07-28 type: owned with: '[[L3Harris Technologies]]' - fn: 13 role: major subcontractor for the Advanced Solid Rocket Motor program (about 118 million dollars of 1993 sales) start: 1993 type: contractor_to with: '[[Lockheed Martin]]' - end: 2022-02-13 fn: 16 role: Lockheed Martin merger agreement terminated on February 13, 2022 after the Commission filed suit on January 25, 2022 start: 2022-01-25 type: subject_of with: '[[Federal Trade Commission]]' summary: Rocket company incorporated in Delaware on March 19, 1942 by von Kármán, Malina, Parsons, Forman, Summerfield and Haley; bought by General Tire in 1945, merged with Rocketdyne in 2013, and acquired by L3Harris in 2023. tags: - Organization - Aerojet - Rocketry - JATO - GALCIT - GeneralTire - GenCorp - Rocketdyne - L3Harris - DefenseContractor - Pasadena - Sacramento updated: 2026-10-05 --- Aerojet Engineering Corporation was incorporated in Delaware on March 19, 1942.[^1] The incorporators were the California Institute of Technology aerodynamicist Theodore von Kármán, his former graduate student [Frank Malina](/people/frank-malina/), the Pasadena chemist [Jack Parsons](/people/jack-parsons/), the machinist Edward Forman, the Caltech researcher Martin Summerfield, and the Washington attorney Andrew Haley.[^1] The initial officers were von Kármán (president), Malina (treasurer), Haley (secretary), and Forman, Parsons and Summerfield (vice presidents); Malina described von Kármán, Haley and himself as the board of directors in a letter to his parents.[^1] In his autobiography von Kármán wrote that each founder agreed to contribute 200 dollars, that none of the Malina group had it, and that Haley agreed to advance 2,500 dollars to cover the cost of starting the company.[^1] ### Origins in the GALCIT project The company grew out of the [GALCIT Rocket Research Project](/programs/galcit-rocket-research-project/) (GALCIT Project No. 1) at Caltech. A 1,000 dollar study contract signed in January 1939 followed a December 1938 meeting of a Washington committee at which General Henry H. Arnold listed assisted takeoff with rockets for heavy bombers among the problems to be studied; in July 1939 Caltech received a 10,000 dollar contract to begin work on jet-assisted takeoff (JATO), described by the NASA historians Stephen Doyle and Michael Ciancone as the first governmental commitment of money for rocketry research at Caltech.[^2] The first JATO flight, in an Ercoupe aircraft, took place on August 12, 1941 at March Field, flown by Army lieutenant Homer Boushey.[^3] Von Kármán wrote that, in considering whether to manufacture the rockets, he consulted Jack Northrop, Clifford Garrett of the Air Research Manufacturing Company and "several friends at Hughes Aircraft" (see [Hughes Aircraft Company](/organizations/hughes-aircraft-company/)), and that none thought a rocket company could survive with the government as its only customer. Malina told an interviewer in 1978 that Air Research had offered to take the group on as consultants if they gave up their patent rights, and that Haley, who had come to Pasadena at von Kármán's invitation in February 1942, answered: "Why don't you fellows set up your own company? I'd be willing to join you."[^4] ### Haley, the Army audit and the Navy Haley held a reserve commission. On March 29, 1942, ten days after incorporation, he wrote to von Kármán that the Army had called him to active duty and that he must resign as secretary and director.[^5] In May 1942 the Army contracting office notified von Kármán that the JATO research contract, scheduled to end in June, would not be renewed. Doyle and Ciancone report an anecdote told to one of them in the early 1980s by an Aerojet official: Army auditors who asked to see the company books were offered von Kármán's personal checkbook. Von Kármán wrote that Colonel Benjamin Chidlaw told him at the Pentagon: "We like you very much Doctor, but only in cap and gown to advise us what to do in science. The derby hat of the businessman doesn't fit you."[^5] Von Kármán telephoned General Arnold and suggested Haley, then chief of the Military Affairs Division of the Office of the Air Judge Advocate; Arnold released Haley for work at Aerojet. In a memorandum of July 22, 1942, Haley listed his intended duties as including "maintaining liaison with the Army, Navy and aircraft manufacturing companies and coordinating on ordnance" and "making necessary financial arrangements." He took the position of president and general manager on September 1, 1942.[^5] On November 18, 1942 he hired as business manager William Zisch, formerly secretary to Robert Millikan and von Kármán. The Navy, according to Doyle and Ciancone, "joined the Air Corps in ordering JATO motors from Aerojet" in the summer of 1942.[^5] ### General Tire General Tire & Rubber Company, an Akron, Ohio firm incorporated in 1915, "jumped into the aerospace and defense industry with the purchase of Aerojet Engineering Corp." in 1945, according to the corporate history published by L3Harris Technologies after it acquired the successor company. The same history states that the company was renamed Aerojet-General Corporation in 1953 on the merger of Crosley Motors.[^6] The annual report of GenCorp for fiscal 2000 states that Aerojet "was founded in 1942 by Dr. Theodore von Karman and initially produced Jet Assisted Take Off (JATO) rockets for military aircraft," and that General Tire & Rubber, "GenCorp's predecessor, became Aerojet's major investor."[^7] The Los Angeles Times of June 19, 1952 reported that Parsons, with five other original stockholders, "founded Aerojet Engineering Corp. in 1942, but sold out his interest three years later," and quoted Aerojet's secretary-treasurer T. E. Beehan: "He was a loner. He liked to wander. But he was one of the top men in his field." The article added that "many of the basic patents for JATO (jet assisted take-off) were obtained under Parsons' name" and that as a vice president he "headed the solid propellant development project."[^8] On August 20, 1946 Parsons wrote to [Aleister Crowley](/people/aleister-crowley/), "This will constitute my formal resignation in full from the Ordo Templi Orientis," the order whose California body, [Agape Lodge](/organizations/agape-lodge/), he had headed.[^9] Malina, according to the Caltech historian Erik Conway, left Pasadena and rocketry in July 1947 for UNESCO in Paris after a job offer from its director Julian Huxley; Conway adds that Aerojet later adapted the WAC Corporal into the Aerobee sounding rocket, "ironically, with Navy money."[^10] ### The Zisch and Kimball episode In 1950 FBI teletypes on [Qian Xuesen](/people/qian-xuesen/) (H. S. Tsien), then retained by Aerojet as a consultant but denied access to classified information by the Navy, recorded that Aerojet's general manager William Zisch had told an agent that Tsien planned to return to China at the end of August; that Zisch and the Aerojet scientist Fritz Zwicky believed him loyal; that Zisch regarded him as one of the twenty top scientists in the United States and in a position to furnish valuable information to the Russians if he were so inclined; and that Zisch had raised the matter with Navy Under Secretary Dan Kimball, "formerly connected with the Aerojet Engineering Company," and planned to raise it again on August 2, 1950 in Washington. A later FBI memorandum recorded that Kimball directed the [Office of Naval Intelligence](/organizations/office-of-naval-intelligence/) to interview Zisch, and that the office, after the interview, took no action and referred the matter to the Bureau.[^11] ### Hughes, Bermite and the propellant circle Parsons worked from 1949 until September 26, 1950 for Hughes Aircraft in Culver City, California, as group leader for propellants, propulsion and launching. In December 1950 he surrendered to the FBI seven Caltech reports of 1941 to 1944 on Army Air Corps jet propulsion that, he said, had been kept from his Aerojet and Hughes employment; a 1951 Air Force note in the file recorded that some of the unclassified papers involved proprietary processes of Aerojet and Thiokol.[^12] He then spent a year, until June 13, 1952, as head of a rocket-propellant detonation and pyrotechnic short-interval delay project at the [Bermite Powder Company](/organizations/bermite-powder-company/) in Saugus, a confidential research and development program.[^8] ### Sacramento and environmental litigation GenCorp's annual report for 1993 lists Aerojet-General Corporation as one of three business segments and gives the former name of the registrant as General Tire & Rubber Co. It reports Aerojet sales of 872 million dollars (1,019 million in 1992), a contract backlog of 1.4 billion dollars, a role as major subcontractor to Lockheed on the Advanced Solid Rocket Motor program (118 million dollars of 1993 sales), exposure to budget cuts affecting the Minuteman missile, the Strategic Defense Initiative and the SADARM munition, and a consent decree with the Environmental Protection Agency over chemical releases at Aerojet's Sacramento facility and at its inactive subsidiary Cordova Chemical Company.[^13] The fiscal 2000 report lists a series of groundwater suits against Aerojet-General Corporation, including actions brought by American States Water Company and Kiefer-Sunrise Associates.[^7] ### Rocketdyne, Lockheed and L3Harris In July 2012 GenCorp signed an agreement to buy the Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne division from United Technologies Corporation for 550 million dollars; the annual report for fiscal 2012 describes the Rocketdyne business as the largest liquid rocket propulsion designer, developer and manufacturer in the United States.[^14] GenCorp completed the acquisition on June 14, 2013, with aggregate consideration to United Technologies of 411 million dollars in cash after adjustments, including 55 million dollars deferred pending a separate acquisition of a stake in RD Amross, LLC.[^15] The registrant's name changed from GenCorp Inc. to Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings, Inc. in April 2015.[^14] Under an agreement of December 20, 2020, Lockheed Martin was to acquire Aerojet Rocketdyne; the Federal Trade Commission filed suit on January 25, 2022 and Lockheed gave notice of termination on February 13, 2022.[^16] On December 17, 2022 Aerojet Rocketdyne entered a merger agreement with L3Harris Technologies, completed on July 28, 2023 at 58 dollars a share in cash; Aerojet Rocketdyne continued as a wholly owned L3Harris subsidiary and its stock was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange.[^17] [^1]: Doyle, Stephen E., and Michael Ciancone, "Aerojet Engineering Corporation: Stimulation and Creation, 1935-1942," IAC-19-E4.2.1, 53rd IAA History of Astronautics Symposium (2019), section "Creation of Aerojet, Pasadena, California, 1942" (Delaware filing of March 19, 1942; officers; quoting von Kármán and Lee Edson, *The Wind and Beyond* (1967), p. 251; Malina's letter to his parents). https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20190032336/downloads/20190032336.pdf [^2]: Doyle and Ciancone, section "Research Enabling Super Aircraft Performance, 1939-1940." https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20190032336/downloads/20190032336.pdf [^3]: Conway, Erik M., "From Rockets to Spacecraft: Making JPL a Place for Planetary Science," *Engineering & Science*, Caltech, no. 4 (2007). https://calteches.library.caltech.edu/702/2/Spacecraft.pdf [^4]: Doyle and Ciancone, quoting von Kármán and Edson, p. 256, and the Malina interview of 1978, p. 10. https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20190032336/downloads/20190032336.pdf [^5]: Doyle and Ciancone, sections on Haley's letter of March 29, 1942, the May 1942 contract notice, "To Dayton and Washington, May 1942," Haley's memorandum of July 22, 1942 and his formal assumption of the presidency, quoting von Kármán and Edson, p. 259, and Shirley Thomas, *Men of Space*, vol. 7 (1965), p. 140. https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20190032336/downloads/20190032336.pdf [^6]: L3Harris Technologies, "Aerojet Rocketdyne History: More Than A Century In The Making" (corporate history page). https://www.l3harris.com/en-it/aerojet-rocketdyne-history [^7]: GenCorp Inc., Form 10-K405 for the fiscal year ended November 30, 2000, Items 1 and 3, SEC EDGAR accession 0000950152-01-001042. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/40888/000095015201001042/l86383be10-k405.txt [^8]: "Scientist's Fatal Blast Explained," *Los Angeles Times*, June 19, 1952, p. 4 (transcription). https://aleistercrowleytimeline.com/Articles/1952/1952-06-19-Los-Angeles-Times/1952-06-19-Los-Angeles-Times.html [^9]: Parsons, John W., resignation from the Ordo Templi Orientis, extract, August 20, 1946. https://aleistercrowleytimeline.com/Correspondence/1946/1946-08-20-Parsons-to-Crowley.htm [^10]: Conway, "From Rockets to Spacecraft" (note 3). https://calteches.library.caltech.edu/702/2/Spacecraft.pdf [^11]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Hsue-Shen Tsien file, Part 1 (FBI teletype reporting Zisch's statement; Zisch statement as summarized in a Los Angeles report; memorandum recording that Kimball directed ONI to interview Zisch), archive.org text FBIFile_Tsien_Part1_djvu.txt. https://archive.org/details/fbi-file-tsien-hsue-shen [^12]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, file 65-59589 (Los Angeles 65-5131), "John Whiteside Parsons," Parts 1 and 2 (statement of September 26, 1950; Los Angeles report of December 1950; Air Force memorandum of 1951). https://archive.org/details/JohnParsons [^13]: GenCorp Inc., Form 10-K for fiscal 1993, SEC EDGAR accession 0000950152-94-000163. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/40888/0000950152-94-000163.txt [^14]: GenCorp Inc., Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended November 30, 2012, Item 1, SEC EDGAR accession 0001193125-13-049466; the name change is recorded in the SEC EDGAR submissions record for CIK 0000040888 (former name GenCorp Inc., to April 23, 2015). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/40888/000119312513049466/d450004d10k.htm [^15]: GenCorp Inc., Form 8-K, June 14, 2013, Items 1.01 and 2.01, SEC EDGAR accession 0000921895-13-001246. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/40888/000092189513001246/form8k07319_06122013.htm [^16]: Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings, Inc., Form 8-K, February 14, 2022, Item 1.02, SEC EDGAR accession 0001193125-22-039134. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/40888/000119312522039134/d310702d8k.htm [^17]: Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings, Inc., Form 8-K, July 28, 2023, Items 1.02 and 2.01, SEC EDGAR accession 0001193125-23-196927. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/40888/000119312523196927/d533534d8k.htm --- *The Info Web has an MCP server for agents at https://theinfoweb.org/mcp (streamable HTTP, no auth): search by meaning, exact text, source or date, and follow typed, footnoted connections. Setup and the same tools over GET: https://theinfoweb.org/llms.txt*