Melpar
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Melpar, Inc. was a company, and is now a division, that specializes in military and civilian government contracts in electronics, chemistry, bio-medicine, and other areas. Many, but not all, of its contracts are classified. The name came from combining the first syllables of the names of its founders, Thomas Meloy and Joseph Parks. Since 1995 it has been a subsidiary of Raytheon Corporation, of Bedford, Massachusetts. Previously it had been part of Westinghouse Air Brake Company (WABCO), and E-Systems. Since the early 1950s its headquarters has been at 7700 Arlington Blvd.(Route 50), Falls Church, Virginia.
In 1970, the company American Standard acquired WABCO in a hostile takeover. Because WABCO was the true owner of the company, Melpar was also acquired via the takeover. Up to 1970, Melpar employed very high-technology workers and had more than 7,000 employees world-wide on the payroll. They were involved in the Apollo program and constructed the AirStream trailer quarantine quarters for returning astronauts. Melpar was also involved in research into the field of LASERs which was a new technology at the time. They were involved in studies predicting the probability of life on Mars. They were deeply involved in the secretive electronic warfare systems of USAF Wildweasel fighters in Vietnam. Alas, a down-turn in the defense industry and a decline of aerospace business in 1970 had a negative impact on Melpar's viability. This, combined with the hostile takeover and subsequent raiding of Melpar's assets by the new owners reduced employment numbers to less than 700 at the time. Melpar was then sold-off to Vought Industries and continually traded-off until it became a division of Raytheon.
As with many budding technology firms created by brilliant, driven personalities, Melpar fell prey to the changes of the time and met a usual and unfortunate demise. At one time in its history it was one of the prized engineering firms in the Washington, DC, area sometimes referred to as the graduate school of industry.
