Aerojet  Aerojet was an American rocket and missile propulsion manufacturer based primarily in Rancho Cordova, California, with divisions in Redmond, Washington, Orange and Gainesville in Virginia, and Camden, Arkansas. Aerojet was owned by GenCorp. In 2013, Aerojet was merged by GenCorp with the former Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne to form Aerojet Rocketdyne. Aerojet developed from a 1936 meeting hosted by Theodore von Kármán at his home. Joining von Kármán, who was at the time director of Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology, were a number of Caltech professors and students, including rocket scientist and astrophysicist Fritz Zwicky and explosives expert Jack Parsons, all of whom were interested in the topic of spaceflight. The group continued to occasionally meet, but its activities were limited to discussions rather than experimentation. Their first design was tested on August 16, 1941, consisting of a small cylindrical solid-fuel motor attached to the bottom of a plane. Takeoff distance was shortened by half, and the USAAF placed an order for experimental production versions. Some aspects of the early operation of the company were described by Kármán in his autobiography: Kármán soon relinquished the presidency: "Haley became Aerojet’s second president on August 26, 1942. He proved to be an incredible administrator." The company expanded and required new facilities: "In October, fifteen employees were drawing paychecks. By December we had expanded to about one hundred and fifty employees and in January 1943 we moved to Azusa, California." In 1943 the Army Air Forces finally placed a full order, demanding that 2000 rockets be delivered before year's end. The difficulty of starting out in an industry with no history explains how the founders lost control: In the spring of 1944 the officers instructed Haley to seek out new sources of assistance. General Tire was one of his clients and that company showed an interest in Aerojet and began negotiations. In January 1945 General Tire acquired half the stock for $75,000. Parsons and Forman also sold their shares, so that, by October, General Tire had control of the majority of Aerojet. Kármán resisted the offers presented to him, until in 1953 when a sizable scholarship fund was offered to be set up as a memorial to his sister Josephine de Karman. The company also invested in pure rocket research, developing both a liquid-fueled design and a new solid-fueled design based on a rubber binding agent in partnership with General Tire.