JAY, Kenneth "Ken"

JAY, NORTHROP

Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 11/11/2014 at 01:54:34

The Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
Saturday, August 31, 1940, Page 12

THEY STARTED HERE
No. 24 in a Mason City Series of Success Stories

KEN JAY Goes to Top in Aviation

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Nineteen hundred nine was the first year of William Howard Taft's presidency. "Teddy" Roosevelt was off in Africa hunting ig game and Pittsburgh nosed out Detroit four games to three for the world's baseball championship.

And 1909 was the year that a 15 year old Mason City youngster set out to build himself an airplane - one of the then latest Curtis pushers.

The job was an ambitious undertaking for anyone in those days and was especially so far the high school son of Dr. and Mrs. Robert Jay. But Ken was no usual boy and he was able to not only build but fly his rickety craft.

* * *
Now, at the age of 46, the former Mason Cityan has reached the pinnacle of the aviation business and after having been a real asset to the industry has retired to a spacious Arizona ranch - for the time being at least.

The 1909 home made airplaine, Ken Jay's first practical project in aviation, lasted him until 1911, when he sold it. In the meantime he was attending school here and was graduated from the local high school.

He was a hard worker and was very ambitious. He never took a vaction but spent his spare time and evenings improving his education with a course taken from a correspondence school.

For a time before leaving Mason City, Ken Jay was employed at the American Brick and Tile company plant.

When war broke out in 1917 Ken Jay knew what he wanted to do about it. He went to Buffalo, N. Y., and began to learn to fly. He had fooled around, of course, with his home made plane, but the 1917 models were far more complicated and capable.

* * *
But he was able to master the art of flying satisfoactorily - so much so in fact, that he went to Mineola, L. I., and passed the test of army inspectors. Then he went to Love field in Texas in the fall of 1917 to act as a civilian flying instructor.

The Mason Cityan showed a keen interest in and adaptability to the air and airplanes. Consequently, when an assistant superintendent was needed at the Springfield Aircraft company's plant in Springfield, Mass., he landed the job.

In Springfield, Ken Jay learned a lot about airplane construction as he worked hard building the famous Curtiss "Jenny" army trainers. The "Jennies" were fine planes in their day and for years after the close of the war were the most familiar planes in American air.

No industry was any harder hit by the end of the great conflict than that of airplane building. So it was not surprising that the young man soon found himself looking around for something to do.

So he went back to there started a truck line, but it wasn't what he wanted and in time he gave it up.

From Texas the former Mason Cityan migrated to California where he got back into the business that he liked best - aviation. He went to work at Lockheed plant, getting valuable experience and picking up new ideas in airplane building. And he had a afew of his own ideas, too.

Then he left the Lockheed plant and, in company with another airplane builder and designer, John K. "Jack" Northrop, started a small plane factory.

The two men worked hard and in the course of time built up a business that attracted the attention of the Lockheed company so that in time a deal was completed whereby the Lockheed corporation took over the plant and the services of Northrop and Jay.

* * *
Back with Lockheed, the two men began to show what they could do. Together they designed and produced the Lockheed Vega - one of the foremost models of its period. It was used by the Wilkins artic expedition and it also set transcontinental time records.

Finally the two men decided to go into business for themselves again and so they formed the Avion Company [1927]. The designed and built all metal single motored ships for distance flying and did it so well that Lincoln Ellsworth used one of their planes to fly over the South pole. The Avion company landed many government contracts and also dealt extensiverly with the Argintine government.

By this time the former Mason Cityan was handling much of the business work of the Northrop-Jay combination and so he went to South America in connection with a big Argentine plane order.

* * *
Although he was much responsible for the success of the combination as was his partner, John Northrop, Kenneth Jay had and has a passion for anonymity. The company [by 1931] was known as the Northrop company and he shunned publicity at all times.

When the former Mason Cityan was here on a visit two years ago he requested that no pictures be taken of him for publication and no papers in Los Angeles or in Arizona, where he now lives, have pictures of him in their files.

The Avion company was doing so well that it finally attracted the attention of another of the major companies, Boeing. The Boeing interests brought them out and made the Northrop company one of the divisions of the United Aircraft corporation. Mr. Jay was named president and general manager of the Northrop division with Mr. Northrop vice president. and designer.

But although the president of the company was primarily concerned with business affairs, Kenneth Jay was not entirelya ble to disinterest himself from the creative end of the business.

* * *
So between them, he and Mr. Northrop brought forth a "flying wing," a plane wich was the sensation of the industry and which today, years after, might still be mistaken for an advanced model. The "wing' was closely examined by Col. Charles A. Lindbergh and was regarded as the marvel of its time.

Finally, in 1937, Ken Jay decided to drop out of the aviation industry on an active basis, so he sold his interests in the Northrop company and resigned as president and general manager.

He retained an interest in several aviation appliance concerns, but left aviation for a ranch he had purchased near Young, Arizona. He also owns land in Ecuador, but at the present time his interests are largely in the cattle he raises on his 2,300 acre place in Arizona.

Today things are astir in the aviation industry. Defense orders are piling in and a rapidly expanding commercial horizon is appearing. There is a need for able and experienced men like Ken Jay. Nor is it like the former local man to remain idle - he is a hard worker by training and by nature. And although he has all the money he can use, it wouldn't be a bad bet to wager that before long he'll have his sleeves rolled up and will be back in his element once again.

NOTE: Northrop bought Northrop.Com, the sixth domain, in 1985. The company developed the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber of the 1990's. In part due to the loss of the Advanced Tactical Fighter contract to Lockheed Martin (1994) and after being dropped from consideration for the Joint Strke Fighter competition, the company bought Grumman to form Northrop-Grumman Company.

Photograph courtesy of Globe-Gazette

Additional information from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Corporation

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, May of 2014

Cerro Gordo Biographies maintained by Lynn Diemer-Mathews.
WebBBS 4.33 Genealogy Modification Package by WebJourneymen