Melpar

The story of how Washington’s technology business unfolded during the 20th century would be incomplete without a discussion of Melpar. From the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s Melpar Inc was the preeminent technological company in Washington–not only was it the largest private employer in the capital area; it was also one of the nation’s top electronics research firms. For a ten-year period it served as a national asset that was heavily relied upon by the Government to solve a wide range of scientific, military and technological problems during the Cold War period.

At the conclusion of World War II, the founders of Melpar Inc (Thomas Meloy and Joseph Parks), at the suggestion of the Navy, moved from New York City to Washington to obtain Government contracts. In late 1945 Joe Parks accidentally killed himself in a hunting accident; nevertheless Tom Meloy continued to foster the idea of developing Melpar as an engineering and production company doing business with the Armed Forces. He began by acquiring the Carl Miller Engineering Company, a small firm that designed and produced electro-mechanical products, located on 5th St between G and H (near the old Pension Building). Soon the new company took over a problem contract for airborne radar systems, and thereafter business expanded rapidly. In the next few years Melpar moved to Alexandria, Va., added a second plant in Cambridge, Mass and a third plant in Alexandria. Within 15 years the company grew to more than 6,000 employees who worked on hundreds of Government contracts, and occupied ten facilities (more than 1,000,000 square feet (93,000 m²)) throughout Northern Virginia.

Melpar’s role was uniquely suited to the post War period characterized by events such as the Berlin Airlift, the detonation of the Atomic Bomb by the Soviet Union, the formation of NATO, and the outbreak of the Korean War. However, in addition to military applications, technology began to play an important role in nonmilitary areas, resulting in many emerging areas of scientific inquiry. The Government had a large pool of technical talent in its laboratories, and assumed an expanded role, funding programs and research of vital interest to the country. The launch of Sputnik in 1957 further intensified competition with the Soviet Union, culminating in the race to place a man on the moon.

Against this backdrop Melpar emerged as the perfect company to help the Government and the nation solve its daunting problems. Melpar wanted first and foremost to be a Government contractor and embraced rather than shunned Government work, as did most other companies. In 1951 Westinghouse Air Brake, a prestigious old-line railway equipment producer, purchased the company, and gave it a free hand to undertake government contracts involving engineering development, production and scientific exploration. By today’s standards profits expected and realized on Government contracts were low (1-2% of sales), and were reinvested in research. There was little pressure to focus on core specialties so that Melpar was able to respond to a broad array of needs of Federal and Defense agencies.

Traditionally, during each decade, attracting outstanding talent involves judgement about the kind of work that is considered the most fun, the most exciting, the most technically challenging and rewarding. In the 1990s the development of the Internet, and its emphasis on computer science, information systems, and software has most excited imaginations and intensified the pace of technology. During the 1970s and 1980’s a similar fervor was experienced in the telecommunications and biotechnology sectors. However, during the 1950s and 1960’s the most exciting, technically challenging place to advance the frontiers of knowledge was the fledgling aerospace and electronics industry. The 1950-60’s had many of the same characteristics as today - new firms started by entrepreneurs with promising ideas, financed on a shoestring, and people readily working long hours challenged by the difficulty and excitement of the work. A unique feature of the 1950s, however, was that the Government, not the commercial marketplace, was the prime source of funding and sponsor of the new technologies.

Melpar perfectly fit into a role of helping the Government take on new exciting challenges. Its location in Washington near its customers was ideal. Melpar wasn’t the only company in the area to thrive; other government contractors such as Atlantic Research, Vitro Laboratories, Page Communications Engineers, Hazleton Laboratories, COMSAT and the Applied Physics Laboratory also played important roles. However, Melpar was the biggest company and had the greatest ability to attract a wide variety of talent and experts from the best universities all over the country. In 1963 a sample of openings included a need for astronomers, astrophysicists, microbiologists, entomologists, geophysicists and gas chromatagraphers. There was a constant migration of the nation’s best intellects between Melpar and Government laboratories and, in effect, Melpar filled a void due to the lack of a preeminent technical university in the area. Overall, the company played an important role on the Washington scene leading technical societies, chairing symposia, and hosting numerous high level meetings and exchange visits with top Government officials and international dignitaries.

Melpar’s daring foresight was dramatically exemplified by a decision in 1952 to build a picturesque, modern plant 10 miles (16 km) from downtown on a 44-acre (180,000 m²) wooded tract near Seven Corners on Route 50. The new building, surrounded by fields in a campus-like setting 400 feet (120 m) back from the road, had a pond, willow trees, brick facade, and parking tucked away inconspicuously behind the plant. It was a vivid contrast to the ugly, dingy buildings and warehouses located downtown, and immediately became the development model to be followed in harmonizing industrial design with residential surroundings. To accommodate Melpar, Fairfax County revamped its zoning laws and welcomed the clean, non-polluting company to help relieve the tax burden on property owners. Melpar was an employer of choice as employees relished a new life-style permitting them to work near their homes. In development advertising the state of Virginia touted Melpar as a model. The decision to move to the country was especially daring considering it would be more than ten years before the “circumferential highway” (later known as the Beltway) was completed, and more than 15 years before a shopping mall was built at Tyson’s Corner.

Melpar’s success also stemmed from its ability to link production facilities to its scientific and engineering capabilities. The company won two large contracts for B-58 aircraft electronics and Minuteman missile guidance components, requiring a buildup of manufacturing plants and an associated work force for the first time in the Washington area. These facilities also enabled scientists to test their laboratory research with prototype hardware. By 1960 the company had assembled a wide range of products such as missile equipment, flight simulators, radar beacons, fuses, data processing equipment, communications, antennas, electronic countermeasure and reconnaissance systems. All the necessary ingredients provided a catalyst for Melpar to thrive and prosper–a superb location near customers with many requirements, the ability to attract the needed talent, excellent facilities to carry out the work, and the right company management motivation.

Managing manufacturing programs presented a different set of challenges. Since Washington did not have a workforce of electronic technicians Melpar had to quickly build and train one. The Minuteman production line required 1,800 people and as many as 130 were hired in a single day. Technology schools such as the Capitol Radio Engineering Institute rapidly expanded to help train designers and draftsmen to build products for space and missile programs with reliability levels never previously approached. Universities conducted technical courses -e.g. Principles of Transistors- in Melpar’s facilities for hundreds of employees participating on their own time, in programs praised by the Secretary of Education as a model for the future. Melpar instituted unheard of tuition-reimbursement policies with special incentives for high grades in technical courses. Positions for minorities and females opened at unprecedented levels and provided lifetime opportunities for many.

During this time the company also pioneered manufacturing technology that accompanied new state of the art developments. Unlike today when existing off-the-shelf technology is readily available, manufacturing had to become engineering’s handmaiden, ready to translate ideas quickly into producible reality. Intense development occurred in areas of microelectronics technology such as fabrication and layout of miniature circuits, and use of thin film devices and plastic components. Processes such as welding, plating, soldering and automatic component insertion were constantly studied and made more reliable, faster and less costly. Since Government manufacturing specifications and standards did not yet exist, Melpar’s manufacturing engineers often found themselves writing process documents that eventually became the Government standard.

When looked at 40 years later, the diversity of research in physical and life sciences undertaken by Melpar was truly astounding. One project begun in the late 1950s (foreshadowing artificial intelligence) linked biology and the design of electrical devices–computer programs that emulated artificial nerve cells and simulated functions such as learning ability and initiative. The intent was to construct a practical thinking machine, similar to a human nervous system that learned pattern recognition and avoided mistakes (e.g. programming a mobile satellite on the moon to avoid a deep precipice). Studies on the nature of speech led to more efficient use of the radio spectrum through bandwidth compression, and improved long distance and coded communications–other related studies focused on elimination of speech deficiencies and development of a phonetic typewriter. In medical research Melpar developed synthetic materials (tissue growth) to be compatible with the heart (later known as the Jarvik heart), and produced an electronic heart monitor (Cardiac Sentry) which detected out-of-norm variations, maintained hospital records and administered prescribed treatments. The company was an early pioneer in plasma physics and developed materials for communicating with manned space vehicles reentering the atmosphere. Using solar energy, desalinization experiments were conducted to make saline and brackish water drinkable. Detection systems to measure highway curves, motions and vibrations were developed so that future mass transit systems would be fast, comfortable and safe.

Melpar’s broad expertise and available researchers assisted the Government in many other fields as well. They performed studies in cell biology, food chemistry, composite materials (light weight, high temperature), solar energy, meteorology, virology and immunology (cancer research), air and water pollution, air traffic control, global navigation (constructed a prototype map of the Global Positioning System), and underwater acoustics and optics. They studied methane detection in mines and conversion of coal to acetylene as a new source of energy. An antenna was placed on top of the Empire State Building to evaluate the feasibility of UHF broadcasting. Offshoot products from laboratory technology included resins, varnishes, foam, nonsmudge ink, adhesives, photoelectric readers and frequency standard instrumentation. Synthetic diamonds and emeralds were produced to test hardness in space age materials. While most of Melpar’s efforts were technical in nature, some involved the social sciences–creation of a stock index of Standard and Poor 500 companies for Business Week, and operation of a Job Corps center.

In spite of on-going research programs Melpar continued its mainstream focus on military and space applications such as radar, communications, and electronic counter measure systems as well as airborne and ground intelligence systems. Devices to detect lethal chemical and biological agents were developed. The company participated in early unmanned (Vanguard and Explorer) and manned space programs (Mercury and Apollo), providing antennas and semidried food for lunar missions. A quarantine facility was produced to insure the astronauts had not brought any contamination from the moon.

Melpar was also one of the world’s foremost flight simulator producers–more than a dozen different systems (including many of the Air Force’s century series fighters and helicopter systems for the Navy) were deployed at bases throughout the world. These simulators became progressively more complex and enabled more realistic and demanding training, and proved their value in saving pilots’ lives and cost (reduced fuel consumption during the 1970s energy crisis).

Overall, during the 1950s and 60’s Melpar was continually on the cutting edge of scientific and engineering discoveries which helped solve some of mankind’s most fundamental problems. A company newspaper editorial in 1957 stated, “We have sought the breeder job, the line of inquiry promising to expand a general field of engineering endeavor or open a new one.” In effect during its ten-year period of ascendancy Melpar played a role as a surrogate university, and served as a repository for a wide variety of engineering and scientific knowledge. The company expanded the frontiers of technology and then passed this information on to others to continue the work– in this sense Melpar truly was a breeder carrying out an important role to propagate scientific and engineering knowledge.^{[citation needed]}

Inevitably, however, in the mid-1960s the situation began to change and Melpar’s research, engineering and production efforts began a period of decline. Many circumstances that initially contributed to the company’s success began to change. First and probably most important, the Government’s budget priorities changed, with much greater emphasis being placed on solving the nation’s social problems, best exemplified by President Lyndon Johnson’s initiatives in the “War on Poverty”. The space program had no clear follow-on mission after landing a man on the moon. The military’s budget was heavily dedicated to providing the necessary manpower and armament to fight the war in Vietnam. None of these budget trends dovetailed with Melpar’s on-going programs.

Other factors contributed to the business decline. The Government didn’t award follow-on manufacturing contracts so mass layoffs of production workers took place. The American Standard Company, a plumbing supply manufacturer that had little interest in Government business, bought the Westinghouse Air Brake Company, and immediately began to sell off the assets. Melpar’s many research programs were too diverse, too unprofitable, and had uncertain business prospects–as scientific knowledge burgeoned, new competitors emerged to take the lead in specialized areas. Without government funding, no company had the internal resources to sustain such a wide variety of research.

Some unfavorable national publicity contributed to Melpar’s misfortunes. In 1963 Bobby Baker was Secretary for the Majority Democratic caucus in the US Senate, and closely linked to Lyndon Johnson - he held perhaps the most powerful nonelected position in Congress. A Melpar vending machine contractor filed a lawsuit against Baker, accusing him of influence-peddling to switch the contract to a competitor, with which he had financial ties. Within a few days Baker resigned his position hoping the issue would quietly die. It didn’t, however, and for almost two years there were daily front-page headlines and congressional investigations into Baker’s many business deals and questionable relationships. Melpar’s top management was called to testify before the Senate Rules committee, although ultimately the Melpar incident was overshadowed by many other allegations and settled out of court. Even so the situation was demoralizing to employees, did not enhance the company’s ability to win new Government contracts, and changes in company management soon took place.

Considering all these events it was inevitable that employees would begin to leave Melpar, start new companies (usually in the Washington area), and take the business with them. As a result over the next 20 to 30 years more than a dozen spin-offs would continue to generate millions of dollars in annual sales and provide employment for thousands in the Washington area. One employee began a communications company in Florida that ultimately emerged as the Harris Corporation, today a $3 billion enterprise. A data communications manufacturer in Boston, Codex, was sold to Motorola for $80 million. Many spin-offs prospered in the 1970s and 1980’s, but have recently left the area, due to industrial consolidations, mergers, and acquisitions. The Meloy Laboratories continued Melpar’s biotechnical, pharmaceutical research until Rhone Poulenc Rorer moved the operation to Philadelphia in the 1980s. A flight simulator spin-off named Simulation Engineering Corporation (Secor), went through four changes in ownership in Northern Virginia–from Sperry Rand (later renamed Unisys) to Honeywell to Hughes to Raytheon - before being moved to Texas in 1998. The same employees started a second company, Quintron, which was purchased by Loral for $22 million and later owned by Lockheed–recently the work has been taken over by Intellx. A few companies still reside in Northern Virginia –VSE Inc in Alexandria (1300 employees), RSI Inc in Sterling (500 employees), ISOMET in Springfield, ST Research (now Sensys Tech) in Newington, as well as half a dozen small machine shops.

While Melpar never regained its lofty position, almost 50 years later it is still in the same facility on Route 50 and has about 1,500 employees. The company has gone through several changes in ownership, being purchased by LTV Electrosystems in 1970 (changed to E-Systems in 1972) and the Raytheon Company in 1994. The name Melpar was discontinued in 1994 and the facility now serves as headquarters for Raytheon’s Strategic Systems Division. Over the last 25 to30 years the company has maintained a low profile performing Government electronics contracts, most notably production and support of ground systems for the U-2 reconnaissance aircraft, and unmanned aerial vehicles. Additionally this facility manages large-scale information systems for civil agencies, such as the Department of Education, and continues to operate a full-service fabrication and test unit for electronic products.

Overall, during a ten-year period of time, Melpar played a pivotal role in the evolving history of Washington technology. At a time after World War II when Washington was totally a Government town, it was the first to nurture and develop private industry, attracting and training a high technology workforce in suburbia. As the first premier high technology company in the area, Melpar’s lasting legacy was to form an industrial base which, over the years, would diversify from Government-oriented contracts to today’s commercial marketplace of knowledge-based, information systems companies.