Thu Feb 09 2012 08:18 EDT
Thu Feb 09 2012 13:18 Zulu
Featured Companies
Litton Aero Products
In 1953 Charles B. Thornton and a small group of associates founded Litton Industries to enter a new industry: development and manufacture of advanced electronic equipment. An immediate area of interest to the new company was inertial navigation technology and in 1954 they began devoting substantial resources to this promising field. The wisdom of that decision was quickly justified, as by the late 1950\nulls Litton was the world\nulls leading producer of inertial navigation systems, a position they would hold for close to half a century. The company has now delivered more than 40,000 navigation systems worldwide.
Today\nulls Litton is a $4.2 billion aerospace, defense and commercial electronics company with technological and market leadership in its principal businesses. The company offers advanced electronic, defense and information systems and is a primary builder of large surface combatant ships for the U. S. Navy and allied nations. Litton is also an international supplier of connectors, multilayer circuit boards, laser crystals, solder materials and other equipment used primarily in the telecommunications, industrial and computer markets. Principal operations are located throughout the United States and in Canada, Germany and Italy.
0n April 11, 1968, an American Airlines B707 took off from Los Angeles International Airport for Tokyo International Airport. What at first glance may have seemed a routine transpacific flight was actually a milestone in commercial aviation history. It marked the first transoceanic commercial flight of an FAA-certified inertial navigation system (INS), a self-contained guidance system requiring no external references after entry of initial latitude and longitude.
That first commercial INS was made by Litton Industries, a California-based aerospace company. Litton had been developing inertial systems for military applications for nearly a decade, giving military fighters and transports a long-sought tactical advantage of an independent means of navigation.
Litton believed the same technology could benefit commercial aviation. In essence the INS was replacing the human navigator with a computer that required a fraction of a second to perform the complex navigational computations that took navigators several minutes. Not only would an INS save the cost of the navigator, but by providing more precise navigational data, it would let the aircraft fly more direct routes, thus saving fuel. Flight tests held in 1963 and 1964 with Pan American Airways confirmed the commercial viability of the inertial navigation system.
Litton started a commercial project in 1966 at its Guidance and Control Systems Division that led to development of the LTN-51 INS used by American Airlines on that first commercial flight. Once the LTN-51 was certified, orders from other airlines followed, leading Litton to establish a separate commercial division on August 4, 1969.
That division, Litton Aero Products, recently celebrated its thirtieth anniversary. Over those three decades the division has delivered more than 17,500 systems to customers worldwide for use on virtually every variety of modern aircraft. It has grown into a major international supplier of avionics equipment for airlines, business aviation and government agencies, with products ranging from laser gyro inertials to GPS sensors and flight management systems.
Aero Products\null headquarters is in Woodland Hills, California, with main support offices in New York, Atlanta, London and Toulouse. Repair centers are in Woodland Hills, Toronto and London.
Litton Aero Products is a pioneer in the development of high technology commercial avionics systems. Since its founding in 1969, the division has delivered over 17,500 systems to customers worldwide for use on virtually every type of modern transport aircraft.
Over its three decades of operation, Aero Products has seen momentous changes in the size and nature of its market. Passenger miles have increased tenfold, nearly twenty times the number of international flights take place today as in 1969 and safety and environmental regulations have steadily grown more stringent. Aero Products has responded to these changes with a series of increasingly accurate, lightweight and reliable navigation systems incorporating advances in computer, laser, and fiber optic technologies.
The latest challenge for commercial avionics suppliers is the new Communication, Navigation, Surveillance/Air Traffic Management system. CNS/ATM is an integrated, modern air traffic management system that has established standards for all aspects of commercial flight, including Required Navigation Performance (RNP). In keeping with its history, Aero Products has anticipated industry needs, and today offers a product line that will support CNS/ATM navigation requirements for the next decade and beyond. Read about our complete line of advanced technology navigation and flight management systems in our Product Information section.
Today\nulls Litton is a $4.2 billion aerospace, defense and commercial electronics company with technological and market leadership in its principal businesses. The company offers advanced electronic, defense and information systems and is a primary builder of large surface combatant ships for the U. S. Navy and allied nations. Litton is also an international supplier of connectors, multilayer circuit boards, laser crystals, solder materials and other equipment used primarily in the telecommunications, industrial and computer markets. Principal operations are located throughout the United States and in Canada, Germany and Italy.
0n April 11, 1968, an American Airlines B707 took off from Los Angeles International Airport for Tokyo International Airport. What at first glance may have seemed a routine transpacific flight was actually a milestone in commercial aviation history. It marked the first transoceanic commercial flight of an FAA-certified inertial navigation system (INS), a self-contained guidance system requiring no external references after entry of initial latitude and longitude.
That first commercial INS was made by Litton Industries, a California-based aerospace company. Litton had been developing inertial systems for military applications for nearly a decade, giving military fighters and transports a long-sought tactical advantage of an independent means of navigation.
Litton believed the same technology could benefit commercial aviation. In essence the INS was replacing the human navigator with a computer that required a fraction of a second to perform the complex navigational computations that took navigators several minutes. Not only would an INS save the cost of the navigator, but by providing more precise navigational data, it would let the aircraft fly more direct routes, thus saving fuel. Flight tests held in 1963 and 1964 with Pan American Airways confirmed the commercial viability of the inertial navigation system.
Litton started a commercial project in 1966 at its Guidance and Control Systems Division that led to development of the LTN-51 INS used by American Airlines on that first commercial flight. Once the LTN-51 was certified, orders from other airlines followed, leading Litton to establish a separate commercial division on August 4, 1969.
That division, Litton Aero Products, recently celebrated its thirtieth anniversary. Over those three decades the division has delivered more than 17,500 systems to customers worldwide for use on virtually every variety of modern aircraft. It has grown into a major international supplier of avionics equipment for airlines, business aviation and government agencies, with products ranging from laser gyro inertials to GPS sensors and flight management systems.
Aero Products\null headquarters is in Woodland Hills, California, with main support offices in New York, Atlanta, London and Toulouse. Repair centers are in Woodland Hills, Toronto and London.
Litton Aero Products is a pioneer in the development of high technology commercial avionics systems. Since its founding in 1969, the division has delivered over 17,500 systems to customers worldwide for use on virtually every type of modern transport aircraft.
Over its three decades of operation, Aero Products has seen momentous changes in the size and nature of its market. Passenger miles have increased tenfold, nearly twenty times the number of international flights take place today as in 1969 and safety and environmental regulations have steadily grown more stringent. Aero Products has responded to these changes with a series of increasingly accurate, lightweight and reliable navigation systems incorporating advances in computer, laser, and fiber optic technologies.
The latest challenge for commercial avionics suppliers is the new Communication, Navigation, Surveillance/Air Traffic Management system. CNS/ATM is an integrated, modern air traffic management system that has established standards for all aspects of commercial flight, including Required Navigation Performance (RNP). In keeping with its history, Aero Products has anticipated industry needs, and today offers a product line that will support CNS/ATM navigation requirements for the next decade and beyond. Read about our complete line of advanced technology navigation and flight management systems in our Product Information section.