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¶ The Nautilus, first atomic submarine, produced by General Dynamics' Electric Boat Co., which recently turned out the third atomic sub, Skate, six months ahead of schedule. Electric Boat is finishing three more atomic submarines, expects to get contracts to build a sub able to launch the Polaris missile while submerged.
¶ The 1,300-m.p.h. B58 Hustler, described by President Eisenhower as the plane that will replace the B-52, now going into mass production at Convair. The B58 is expected to be the backbone of the U.S. air striking force for years to come.
¶ The 800-m.p.h., delta-winged F-102, now the Air Force's only supersonic, all-weather interceptor, being turned out at a fast clip by Convair, which has already delivered 700 of the 1,000 ordered. Convair is working on an improved version, the F-106, which will fly fast enough (1,300 m.p.h.) to catch the fastest bomber, already has Air Force orders for 300.
¶ The cathode tubes (trade name: Char-actron) that are the heart of the SAGE air-defense warning system and the electronic computers that guide U.S. missiles to their targets, both produced by General Dynamics' Stromberg-Carlson Division.
¶ Sabre jet fighters and submarine hunter-killer planes for most of the free world, rolling off the assembly lines of Canadair Ltd., Dynamics' wholly owned Canadian subsidiary.
¶ Terrier, a rocket-powered interceptor missile that can streak off like a hawk from the decks of a heavy cruiser to destroy enemy bombers far out at sea, and the smaller Tartar missile for destroyers.
Golf & Poetry. As remarkable as the scope and variety of General Dynamics' activities is the fact that the firm is virtually the creation of one man, a princely dreamer named John Jay Hopkins, who died of cancer last May at 63. The handsome, debonair son of a California Presbyterian minister, Hopkins was trained in the law (Harvard '21), made a fortune in the stock market while still a young man, developed into an executive with one of the widest-ranging minds in U.S. industry. A tireless worker, he could put in an 18-hour day and then sit up in Manhattan nightclubs until dawn discussing Swinburne's poetry or intergalactic travel. An ardent golfer, he even formed the International Golf Association to promote worldwide friendship through golf.
Hopkins first ventured into the arms business in 1937 as a director of small, conservatively managed Electric Boat Co., of Groton, Conn., which was formed in 1899 by a merger of two boat companies with Electro Dynamic Co., a motor manufacturer that later became a General Dynamics division. One of Electric Boat's founders, John Holland, built the U.S. Navy's first submarine—U.S.S. Holland—in 1896, and the company had led a feast-or-famine existence since, depending on the number of Navy orders. When Hopkins arrived, the company was famished. He made such a good impression as director that when World War II broke out the Navy asked him to take over as vice president in charge of financial and legal matters. He whipped the company into battle shape (Electric Boat turned out 72 subs during the war, more than any other yard), moved into the president's chair in 1947.