Thiokol
Thiokol (variously Thiokol Chemical Company, Morton-Thiokol Inc., and Cordian Inc.) is a U.S. corporation concerned with rubber, chemicals, and latterly with rocket and missile propulsion systems.
The Thiokol Chemical Company was founded in 1929. Its initial business was a range of synthetic rubber and polymer sealants, and Thiokol was a major supplier of liquid poylmer sealants during World War II. When scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory discovered Thiokol's polymers made ideal rocket fuels, Thiokol moved into the new field. Opening laboratories at Elkton, Maryland and later production facilities at Elkton and at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama.
Company history
- 1929: Thiokol Chemical Company founded
- 1949: Thiokol produce the Falcon missile, the world's first solid-state missile system
- 1958: Merger with Reaction Motors Inc. (RMI), makers of liquid propellant rocket motor systems.
- 1958: Thiokol awarded contract to build licence for the first stage of the Minuteman ICBM system.
- 1959: Thiokol Huntsville produces CASTOR strap-on booster rocket
- 1971: The company enters the business of producing ski lifts
- 1980: Thiokol acquires Carlisle Chemical Company of Cincinnati, Ohio
- 1982: Thiokol merges with Morton-Norwich products (owners of the Morton salt concern, the Simoniz automotive products brand, and various chemical concerns). The merged company is called Morton Thiokol Incorporated (MTI)
- 1989: Morton-Thiokol splits, with most of the chemical concern going with Morton. The propulsion systems divsion becomes Thiokol Inc.
- 1998: Thiokol changes name to Cordian Technologies
- 2000: Thiokol merges with two divisions of Alcoa and with Howmes Castings and Huck Fasteners to become AIC Group (Alcoa Industrial Components).
- 2001: AIC is bought by ATK Inc., an aerospace and defense contractor consisting largely of the former defense business of Honeywell.
Products
Products made by the aerospace divisions of RMI and Thiokol include motors used in Subroc, the Pershing missile, the Peacekeeper missile, Poseidon missile, and the Trident I and Trident II missiles. Thiokol produced powerplants for numerous U.S. military missile systems, including AGM-88 HARM, AGM-65 Maverick, AGM-69 SRAM, and AIR-2 Genie.
Thiokol also produced a variety of liquid and solid rocket motors for the US space program, including deorbit motors for the Mercury and Gemini programs, rocket stages and separation rocket moters for the Apollo program, motors for the Pioneer, Surveyor, Viking, Voyager and Magellan missions, and the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster. Thiokol technologies were also used in the private Tier One manned spaceplane.
Thiokol pioneered the short-burn rocket motors used in aircraft ejector seats (for example, the Thiokol TU-389 used in the F-106 fighter produced 36,600 pounds of thrust). The company also produced a number of the earliest practical airbag systems, building the high-speed sodium azide exothermic gas generators used to inflate the bags. Thiokol bags were first used in U.S. military aircraft, before being adapted to space exploration (Mars Pathfinder bounced down on Mars on Thiokol airbags) and automotive airbags. Thiokol's generators form the core of more than 60% of airbags sold worldwide, in everything from the Lincoln Towncar to the Mazda Miata.