1953
The year WD-40 was invented by the Rocket Chemical Company. Located in San Diego, CA, the goal of the product was to create something that would prevent rust and corrosion on aircraft. After forty attempts to create the formula, they famously came up with the right one on their 40th attempt. The name WD-40 stands for water displacement, formula 40. It’s first application came as a coating for the Atlas missiles made by Convair in the 1950s.
The surprising origins of America’s most versatile household product
In the early years of the 1950s, the Rocket Chemical Company was on a mission. They wanted to make a line of solvents and degreasers that would prevent rust in the aerospace industry.
The first fifty years of the aerospace industry were marked by innovation and change. From the Wright Brothers’ first flight in 1903 to their 1908 military contract, it picked up interest in a big way. Aircraft played a role in the First World War and prompted an era of evolution and development for the industry. According to The Encyclopedic History of the Aerospace Industry, seven firms built more than 22,500 of the 400-horsepower Liberty engines that eventually laid the foundation of what became an incredibly efficient industry. They were also led by only two companies: Wright Aeronautical Company and Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor.
Government-funded test laboratories came around and the aircraft design as we know it today really took off in the 1920s. Metal didn’t become the most prominent aircraft construction material until the mid 1930s. When it replaced wood, it revealed an entirely new potential problem: corrosion.
Most types of metal—including the ones used in the construction of those early aircraft—have a tendency to rust over time (although there are a few that don’t). Painting, maintenance, cleaning, and hangar storage help attenuate rust issues, but they are sometimes difficult to prevent entirely. Exposing the metal to the oxygen in the air around us causes paint to wear off and rust to build up (the process is known as “uniform surface attack”). Other parts of the plane—like the landing gear and engine—can also develop corrosion over time. Then there’s the issue of moisture building up in crevices and eventually causing rust. A rusty plane is not a good thing. Even so, rust-prevention wasn’t a high priority early on for some sectors of the industry. All that changed as the industry evolved.
The Rocket Chemical Company stood on the precipice of that change with their attempt to solve the problem once and for all. The company was a small, fledgling operation. With only three employees—Norm Larsen, who invented it, Gordon Dawson, and John Gregory. Later, John S. Barry would become president and CEO, eventually molding the company into what it is today.