Friday, August 14, 2026

Question: Under what company name did Raytheon’s Tucson missile plant open in 1951?

Answer: Hughes Aircraft Company. Howard Hughes bought nearly 2,500 acres south of the Tucson airport in early 1951, and the first employees trained in an airport warehouse that July before the plant began building the Falcon, the first effective air-to-air guided missile. The Air Force soon bought the plant, which became Air Force Plant 44 and remains government-owned to this day. Raytheon acquired Hughes’ defense business in 1997.