In the 1960s, after a successful career as a pulp and later paperback cover artist, Harold McCauley was faced with the reality of a dwindling market for his brand of sci-fi and fantasy illustration. Moving away from freelance work, the artist found employment as a company illustrator for The Martin Marietta Corporation, an American manufacturing company founded in 1961 through the merger of Glenn L. Martin Company and American Marietta Corporation. The combined company became a leader in chemicals, aerospace, and electronics. In 1995, it merged with Lockheed Corporation to form Lockheed Martin. This work, showing an air-traffic controller on the job as a plane flies over treacherous terrain, is a rare surviving example from this important era in the artist's career, circa 1963.
