Rockwell International was a large American manufacturing conglomerate founded in 1919 as Rockwell Manufacturing Company, merging with North American Aviation in 1967 to form North American Rockwell, and renamed Rockwell International in 1973. It engaged in diverse sectors including aerospace (e.g., B-1 Lancer bomber, Space Shuttle orbiters, Apollo modules), defense electronics, avionics (Collins Radio acquired 1973), automotive components, printing presses, industrial automation (Allen-Bradley acquired 1985), valves/meters, and semiconductors. It became the largest U.S. defense and NASA contractor in the 1980s. As a major U.S. defense contractor, it was the former employer of Richard K. Smyth, who worked there for 17 years across two stints on computer and avionics projects; Smyth later established MILCO International, using business connections from Rockwell to enable its founding, and was indicted for illegal export of nuclear triggers via MILCO. The company was defunct since 2001 after splitting into Rockwell Automation (industrial automation successor) and Rockwell Collins (avionics); it sold its aerospace and defense divisions (including Rocketdyne) to Boeing in 1996. Headquarters moved multiple times, with the final location in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Major sites included El Segundo/Seal Beach/Costa Mesa, CA; Pittsburgh, PA; Cedar Rapids, IA; southern California, Ohio, and others.