Aircraft Radio Corporation and their role in the development of avionics

Aircraft Radio Corporation of Boonton, N.J., a long-forgotten entity, played a huge role in the development of modern avionics. Aircraft Radio was a wholly-owned subsidiary of Radio Frequency Laboratories, RFL, in the mid 1920´s and was spun off as a separate company in 1929. Aircraft Radio developed airborne radio equipment for military and civilian aircraft during the early days of radio during the “golden age of radio” in the 1920´s. Most importantly, during the decade of the 1920´s Aircraft Radio developed the radio beacon system used for the September, 1929 demonstration of blind flight by Lt. James, “Jimmy” Doolittle. In the 1930´s Aircraft Radio provided the first two-way radio for military aircraft. Aircraft Radio designed and manufactured the famous ARC-5 series of radios for WWII aircraft where over a million pieces were made during the war. Aircraft Radio is long gone having been a casualty of years of mergers and acquisitions.