City of Sunnyvale

In 1947 Westinghouse Electric Corporation, a major manufacturer of electrical power generation and transmission equipment, and an extensive line of electrically powered consumer products, bought the Joshua Hendy Iron Works plant in Sunnyvale. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA and with most of its operations in plants throughout the Eastern United States, Westinghouse had sought a location to manufacture equipment for the rapidly growing electrical utility market on the West Coast.

The Hendy site was ideal for what Westinghouse needed. Situated on 70 acres in the heart of Sunnyvale, with over one million square feet of are under roof and extensive machine tools and equipment installed during the peak defense production years of World War II, Hendy had struggled in finding a postwar market for its products, and much of the plant area was dormant.

With the arrival of Westinghouse, the plant came alive again. Many employees were transferred from the company’s much smaller Manufacture & Repair plant in Emeryville to join the ex-Hendy work force and production lines were set up for transformers, motors, generators, switchgear, steam turbines, and other equipment needed by the electrical utility industry.

In addition, the Sunnyvale Division designed and built many notable "one-of-a-kind" products, including Wind Tunnel Compressors for the Air Force’s Arnold Air Research center, said to have been the world’s largest rotating machines. Other unique orders ranged from telescopes for Kitt Peak Observatory to "Deepstar" submersible vehicles.

In 1956 the Special Projects Office of the U.S. Navy awarded the Sunnyvale Division the prime contract to design, manufacture, test, and install the launching and handling equipment for the Polaris Ballistic Missiles to be launched underwater from a new class of nuclear-powered submarines. Additional manufacturing space was required for this project, and Westinghouse was able to buy the adjacent Woolridge Manufacturing plant, thus increasing plant area to 80 acres. The Polaris program was followed, in turn, by the Poseidon and Trident Missile programs which provided steady business for the Division for nearly 45 years.

In the early 1960’s, the decision was made at the Westinghouse Corporate level to focus on the defense product business at Sunnyvale and to return that small part of the Corporation’s commercial power generation business to their "home" Divisions in the East. Thus, in 1965 Sunnyvale became the Marine Division of Westinghouse and assumed the responsibility as the lead Division for the design and manufacture of all shipboard main propulsion and power generation equipment. Since commercial shipbuilding in the U.S. had virtually evaporated, our principal customer was, as with Missile Launch Systems, the U.S. Navy. Since that time the Marine Division has been a major supplier of equipment for Navy destroyers, cruisers, aircraft carriers, assault ships, and both attack and ballistic missile submarines. Much of the Marine work has involved significant technological advances required by new classes of ships with more sophisticated and complex weapons systems. As an example, the Marine Division designed and developed the manufacturing technology that created "the world’s quietest reduction gears" for the Seawolf class submarines.

At the same time, the Missile Launching and Handling business led to the offshoot of two additional major programs, the Peacekeeper for land-based and mobile launchers, and the Cruise missile for launching Tomahawk missiles from attack submarines. Both these programs involved the development of carbon composite materials to replace the heavier steel in fabricating launch tubes. With all this increased defense product activity, Martine Division entered a "boom" era not seen since the Hendy days of World War II. The work force grew to 5,000 in the 1980’s, and the former Sunnyvale High School campus was leased to house the Division’s Engineering Center of about 1,000 people.

With the end of the Cold War and the significant reduction of military spending by Congress, the Marine Division’s major programs were either drastically curtailed, or cancelled altogether. Thus, by the early 1990’s, plant employment dropped to less than 1,000, and some of the offices and factory areas were either consolidated or vacated. At the same time, Westinghouse Electric Corporation itself was beginning to unravel and major segments of the business were being closed down or sold off.

Finally, on March 1, 1996, Westinghouse Electronic Systems, the parent business unit of the Marine Division, was sold to Northrop Grumman Corporation and continues to operate in the year 2000 as the Marine Systems plant in Sunnyvale.

Some of the unique machine tools in the plant:

· The Mesta Vertical Boring Mill with its 40’ diameter rotating table the size of a carousel.

· The huge Craven Planer, imported from Britain during World War II, and its even larger replacement, the Ingersoll Milling Planer (largest of its kind west of the Mississippi)

· The high-tech Gear Tooth Grinding Machines, which produce the "world’s quietest submarine propulsion gears."

· The Mazak Robotic Milling Machine for producing an entire turbine blade in a single setup

· The development of computer-aided design and manufacture, and the introduction of computer-controlled machines – first by punched paper tape, and later, current microchip technology.

Impressions & Recollections

In my 35-year career at the Sunnyvale plant, here are a few of my lasting recollections:

The plant whistle, which signaled shift changes and work breaks, and could be heard all over town.
The "red barn" appearance of the factory buildings before their painted wooden exteriors were covered by insulated vinyl siding in the mid-1970’s.
A plant so large that bicycles were assigned to employees who had to travel frequently around its 80 acres.
The huge electrically driven bridge cranes, of up to 100-ton lifting capacity, that spanned the main aisles of the heavy machinery manufacturing buildings, with their control cab operators signaling by trolley bells to warn those below of their approach.
Family days at the plant, when spouses and children were invited to tour the shops, view product displays, and were treated to lunch and live music by the in-house Axidentals band, in which I had the pleasure of playing drums.
Most of all, my fondest recollections are of the people, the friendships, the togetherness – for working at Westinghouse was truly "like family."

Sunnyvale Public Library • 665 W. Olive Ave., Sunnyvale CA 94086
(408) 730-7300 • www.sunnyvalelibrary.org
Contact Us • Site Map