King Radio Corporation was an

avionics Avionics (a blend of ''aviation'' and ''electronics'') are the electronic systems used on aircraft. Avionic systems include communications, navigation, the display and management of multiple systems, and the hundreds of systems that are fit ...

company started by Ed King, Jr (1921–2012). King was an engineering student at Kansas State University. In 1948 he founded his first company manufacturing components for Arthur A. Collins of

Collins Radio Rockwell Collins was a multinational corporation headquartered in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, providing avionics and information technology systems and services to government agencies and aircraft manufacturers. It was formed when the Collins Radio Compa ...

. After selling his first venture in 1959, King founded King Radio in a rural area outside Kansas City. The company was moved shortly after its formation to a plant in

Olathe, Kansas Olathe ( ) is the county seat of Johnson County, Kansas, United States. It is the fourth-most populous city in both the Kansas City metropolitan area and the state of Kansas, with a 2020 population of 141,290. History 19th century Olathe wa ...

. It was later purchased by

Allied Corporation Allied Corp. was a major American company with operations in the chemical, aerospace, automotive, oil and gas industries. It was initially formed in 1920 as the Allied Chemical and Dye Corporation as an amalgamation of five chemical companies. In ...

and merged with Bendix Corporation in 1985 to form Bendix/King. Today it is part of

Honeywell International Inc Honeywell International Inc. is an American publicly traded, multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It primarily operates in four areas of business: aerospace, building technologies, performance mat ...

Products

A King KY197 Comm radio (top) in a Yankee panel King Radio was a manufacturer of

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...

and aviation gauges and indicators. It was a major avionics supplier of Cessna,

Piper Piper may refer to: People * Piper (given name) * Piper (surname) Arts and entertainment Fictional characters Comics * Piper (Morlock), in the Marvel Universe * Piper (Mutate), in the Marvel Universe Television * Piper Chapman, lea ...

, and

Beechcraft Beechcraft is an American brand of civil aviation and military aircraft owned by Textron Aviation since 2014, headquartered in Wichita, Kansas. Originally, it was a brand of Beech Aircraft Corporation, an American manufacturer of general avi ...

. The success of King Radio began with the highly popular KY 90 VHF communications radio, known for its clarity and low cost. Over the years King Radio produced many hits such as the KDF 800 Automatic Direction Finder and the KX 155 Navigation/Communication radio. Many of these products can still be found on aircraft flying today. In 1970 King Radio released the KX 175 the first low cost all solid state VHF navigation and communications unit with TSO design approval, which was the first affordable general aviation digitally synthesized radio, which together with its derivatives, the KX170B and KX 175B, became what is known as the most reliable radio of its times, for use in general aviation.

Acquisition

In 1983, King Radio was acquired by the

, which also purchased

Bendix Aviation Bendix Corporation is an American manufacturing and engineering company which, during various times in its existence, made automotive brake shoes and systems, vacuum tubes, aircraft brakes, aeronautical hydraulics and electric power systems, av ...

that same year. The combined company was called Bendix/King.

merged with the

Signal Companies In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' ...

in 1985 to form AlliedSignal. That company later merged with

Honeywell Honeywell International Inc. is an American publicly traded, multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It primarily operates in four areas of business: aerospace, building technologies, performance ma ...

, and retained the use of the Honeywell name. The BendixKing brand has remained popular with aviation enthusiasts, and both AlliedSignal and Honeywell have used the brand on their general aviation products to this day.

References

External links

The Ed King Story
* http://www.bendixking.com {{Honeywell Aircraft engineering companies Avionics companies Honeywell Technology companies established in 1959 Technology companies disestablished in 1983 Bendix Corporation