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Originally Posted by ElAurens
Two aircraft come to mind.
The Douglas A20 Havoc (Boston) and the Bristol Blenheim. Both were private venture developments that were not done to specific government contract requirements, but were purchased by their respective governments because their demonstrated performance was so good.
The P51 also sort of fits this description, because has you may recall, it was not built to a government specification. It was a private venture design offered to the RAF in lieu of the P40, that the RAF was actually looking to purchase.
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I believe both Douglas and North American are now part of Boeing.
Douglas merged with McDonnell to become McDonnell Douglas, which was later bought by Boeing. North American Aviation merged with Rockwell-Standard to become North American Rockwell, which renamed itself to Rockwell International. Rockwell later sold its defense and space divisions to Boeing.
Does Boeing tend to be this way about its older aircraft?
Interestingly enough, it looks like Northrop Grumman may not actually own the remains of Republic Aviation or Vought. Republic was bought by Fairchild, which seems to be owned by M7 Aerospace. Vought was originally partially owned by Northrop Grumman, but NG's share in it was bought out by the Carlyle Group in 2000.
Harry Voyager