,
South Vietnam 27 September 1967
R. G. LeTourneau founded R.G. LeTourneau, Inc. in
California in 1929, as a contractor of earthmoving equipment, which manufactured products in
Longview, Texas. During
World War II, the company provided nearly 75% of the
Allies' earthmoving equipment. In 1954, it built the first jack-up
drilling rig. In 1955, it made the first log-stacker machine. In 1965, the company made the first
straddle carrier. LeTourneau had spent the early 1950s perfecting a diesel-electric drivetrain for multi-wheeled heavy-machinery. The system—somewhat similar in concept to the sort used on many locomotives –used a diesel combustion engine to spin an electric generator, which would send its power to hub motors mounted to each wheel of the vehicle. LeTourneau sold most of his company to
Westinghouse Air Brake Company in 1953, for US$ 31M. In 2011, Rowan (now
Valaris Limited) sold LeTourneau Technologies to
Joy Global. Joy Global subsequently sold LeTourneau's Drilling, Marine, and Power divisions to
Cameron International. In 2016,
Keppel Corporation acquired LeTourneau Offshore Products (jackups, cranes, and elevating units) from Cameron, while Cameron retained the LeTourneau Drilling Products division. ==References==