The company continued and escalated the Wright brothers patent war with other aircraft manufacturers, until its resolution—under duress from the government, in 1917, at the start of U.S. involvement in World War I—by the cross-licensing agreement developed and managed through the Manufacturers Aircraft Association.

[3] A license-built version of the Hispano-Suiza 8 was manufactured by the company under the engineering leadership of Henry M. Crane.

[4] Martin soon resigned, dissolving the Wright-Martin joint enterprise within a year.

The company was renamed Wright Aeronautical in 1919, and shifted from manufacturing aircraft to manufacturing aircraft engines, developing the pivotal Wright Whirlwind engines which changed aviation dramatically.

In 1961, the company merged with the American-Marietta Corporation to become industrial conglomerate (and continued aerospace manufacturer) Martin Marietta; it merged with Lockheed in 1995 to become today's Lockheed Martin, one of the United States' three remaining major large aircraft manufacturers (along with Boeing and Northrop Grumman).