Thomas Victor Jones R.I.P.

Thomas Victor Jones R.I.P.

 

The aviation pioneer who built Northrop and the B-2 bomber.

 

From the Wall Street Journal

Though you wouldn't know it from our current political tempers, the wealth of 20th-century America wasn't created in Washington, D.C. It was built by the likes of Tom Jones, the Californian and aerospace visionary who died last week at age 93.

Jones's spectacular career spanned the modern age of aviation—from victory in the Pacific in World War II to the era of stealth and drone aircraft. Fresh out of Stanford with an engineering degree, he worked for Douglas Aircraft and helped design the planes that won the war against the Japanese fleet.

After a postwar stint advising Brazil's nascent aviation system, Jones went to Rand Corp. and wrote a path-breaking study on "The Capabilities and Operating Cost of Possible Future Transport Airplanes." A major theme of his career was adapting new technology in ways that were effective and affordable for military platforms.

He pursued that credo at Northrop Corp. NOC in Your Value Your Change Short position , a faltering aviation company that he turned into a giant over his 37-year tenure, including some 30 years as CEO starting in 1960. He helped to make the company, now Northrop Grumman, a backbone of American national defense.

Under his leadership, Northrop developed the T-38, the world's first supersonic air trainer, which was adapted to became a low-cost fighter exported to U.S. allies. He also helped develop the F-5 fighter jet, the F-18 that became a versatile carrier aircraft, and (much less successfully) the F-20 fighter.

Northrop pioneered the gyroscopic ball that floats inside a fluid sphere and improved missile and aircraft guidance. It was used inside the MX missile, which was deployed during the Reagan military buildup.

Jones was especially proud of Northrop's contribution to stealth technology, which he promoted to the Pentagon far ahead of most others. Northrop won the contract for the B-2 bomber, which became controversial because of its cost but is still a U.S. strategic advantage that can travel halfway across the world to hit targets without detection. Jones and Northrop were also ahead of their time in predicting uses for drone aircraft, which spare the lives of pilots and allow the U.S. to hit terrorists in remotest Pakistan and Yemen.

Jones was sometimes a source of controversy himself and got caught up in the Nixon campaign-finance scandals. But his contributions at Northrop were so extensive that he remained chairman until he retired at age 70 in 1990. He devoted his later years to building Moraga Vineyards within the city of Los Angeles, of all places, which he sold to our chairman Rupert Murdoch last year.

Jones was a friend of this page, but above all he was one of those unsung patriots who emerged after World War II to make the U.S. prosperous and expand liberty around the world. America should celebrate them more than it does. They remind us, or at least they should, of the great things America can still achieve.