AIL History
As extracted from the 1991 issues of the AIL Record.
Brought to you by your host and the generosity of John
Menechino.
1941 The Columbia University Division of War
Research begins to organize its "airborne project"
under contract number OEMsr-20, which also
covered operations at the Underwater Sound
Laboratory at New London, Connecticut.
1942 Airborne Instruments Laboratory begins production
of the "Mark IV-B2 MAD." The Magnetic Airborne Detector,
used to locate submerged submarines, helps turn the tide of
the Battle of the North Atlantic.
1942 AIL begins work on the AN/ASQ-2, a system which
would automatically fire markers and retro-bombs for the
location and destruction of submerged submarines. This is
a refinement of the Magnetic Airborne Detector, AIL's first
product.
1942 Airborne Instruments Laboratory, still part of Columbia
University, moves to 150 old Country Road, Mineola.
1944 The AIL Magnetic Attack Trainer 3 (MAT-3) is placed
in operation at key West, Florida. The MAT-3 was used by the
Airship (Blimp) Antisubmarine Training School.
1944 The first V-2 rocket is fired at Paris. AIL subsequently
develops a ground-based jammer (shipped in the fall of 1944)
and an airborne jammer (AN/ARQ-11), ten of which were
delivered in late 1944 and early 1945.

1945 The U.S. drops Atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Japan surrenders on August 14th. AIL's research contracts with
the U.S. government are cancelled effective August 31st. Hector
Skifter scrambles to locate funding and keep AIL's scientists and
engineers together as an independent corporation.
1945 AIL begins its life as a separate corporation. Development
contracts in the first year totaled approximately $1 million. American
Airlines provided working capital until joint ownership by the airlines
could be finalized.

1946 AlL's first Retirement Income Plan becomes
effective. 47 employees enrolled in the plan and
contributes a total of $413.10 per month. ALL, in
turn, contributes $466.89 per month. Within 10 years,
close to 500 employees contribute to
the plan.
1949 The Berlin Airlift officially ends. The airlift provided
2,325,000 tons of food, fuel and supplies in the course of
194,489 flights. AIL air traffic control systems made the
airlift possible.

1954 Laurence Rockefeller and the American Research and
Development Corporation each sell 5,000 shares of AIL
stock to the general public.

1955 AILer Fred Kaplar breaks his leg sliding into first
base in a softball game against Fairchild Camera &
Instrument. The AIL team was so upset that they lost
the game 15 to 4.
1955 The Airborne Recreation Association holds a
Beach Party at Jones Beach. The staff eats 50
pounds of hamburgers and hot dogs.
1955 AIL is featured on the Quentin Reynolds program,
"Operation Success," on Channel 4.

1956 AIL adds a computer division through a new wholly-
owned subsidiary, Mountain Systems, of Thornwood,
New York.
1956 AIL exhibits at the Mineola Fair and Industrial
Exhibition at Roosevelt Raceway.
1956 The AIL Record has a story about the AIL Astronomy
Club. Members of the club built an optical telescope (a ten inch
Newtonian Reflector), including grinding the mirror. The
telescope only costs $100 but required almost 400 hours of labor
by the club members.

1957 AIL's Cytoanalyzer, a mass screening device for
PAP smears, is featured on Edward R.Murrow's "See
It Now" program on Channel 2.
1957 AIL begins an 8 week summer work experience program
for 21 juniors and seniors from Mineola and Westbury High
Schools. AIL's pro gram is a pioneering one in the defense
industry.
1957 AIL begins its first training program for new employees
in the electrical assembly department. The program compresses
the normal experience months of electrical assembly work into
40 hours of intensive training.

1957 AIL equipment permits Bell Telephone Researchers to simulate
voice transmission over great distances. This offered significant savings
over other types of testing.
1957 The first women begin work in the harness room of the Electrical
Assembly Department. There were 10 members in the first group of
"Wirewomen Trainees."

1957 As part of radar tests, AIL builds its largest model plane
ever: a 1/8th scale model of a Boeing B-47. The model's
wingspan was 14&frac12; feet.

1958 AIL ships a MICROTOL system to IBM's Endicott, New
York, manufacturing plant. The AIL equipment cuts IBM's
inspection time on cams from 12 hours to 12 minutes.

1958 AIL is acquired by Cutler-Hammer, a Milkwaukee
based company founded in 1892. At the time of the
acquisition, Laurence Rockefeller owns 20% of ALL.
(He had been an investor since 1950). The combined
sales of ALL and Cutler-Hammer in 1958 totals $81 million.
1958 Idelwild Airport holds the official dedication of an
AIL ASDE (Airport Surface Detection Equipment) system
to control movement of planes and vehicles on the ground.
1958 AIL develops an EKG for measuring a pilot's action
during flight. Earlier EKG's required the patient to be at rest.
1958 AIL's AN/BDQ-l, a radiation monitoring system is aboard
the U.S. Navy Submarine "Skate" it sails under the Arctic ice cap.
1958 The Engineering and Production Division moves into AIL's
enlarged facility at 971 Stewart Avenue which was formerly occupied
by the Castro Convertible Corporation.
1958 At the annual Five Year Club dinner, the club's first
honorary membership is given to Philip Ryan, President
of Cutler-Hammer
1959 The beginning of the move to the new Melville
plant. The Research and Engineering Division, is
the first to move, reporting for work in Melville
on May 18, 1959.
1959 AIL is awarded the prime contract on the ADS-1
(later named the USD-7), the most sophisticated airborne
system of its type ever ordered. Among the subcontractors
to AIL were Sperry Gyroscope. Raytheon, and Sylvania
1959 AIL receives an $8 million Air Force prime contract
for 29 Video Integrating Groups (VIG) to filter radar data
and eliminate interference. John Clarke and John Bischoff
head the project.
1959 The FAA puts the new Air Traffic Control Radar Beacon:
Although AIL developed the "defruiter" portion of the equipment,
AIL's main role was that of evaluator, critic, and synthesizer in assisting
the FAA in developing a safe and useable system.
1960 AIL begins a training program for its secretarial staff.
1960 Hector Skifter resumes his duties as President of
ALL after a 14 month leave of absence to serve
in Washington as Assistant Director for Defense
Research & Engineering (Air Defense) in the
Department of Defense.
1960 Mechanical sandwich dispensers are removed from the Melville
facility. They are replaced by an in-plant luncheon ordering service
operated by Barnes Commissary
1960 Cutler-Hammer is rated the 13th best managed company
in America, according to the 171 company executives on the
Dun's Review President's panel. The top 20 included 18 industrial
giants (Fortune 110 or less) and 2 smaller companies: Cutler-
Hammer and Texas Instruments. The larger companies included
DuPont, General Electric, General Motors, IBM, 3M, AT&T,
Kodak, Proctor & Gamble, Esso, Ford, and Nabisco.

1961 On June 24th, the ALL developed, "Topside Sounder",
satellite is launched. The satellite is designed to measure the
degree to which the ionosphere reflects radio waves. The
"Topside Sounder" reached a peak altitude of 633 miles.
1961 AIL's Apparatus Division begins selling a
Nuclear System for measuring the stock contents
of an operating blast furnace. Called "Stockray",
it used an arrangement of radioactive sources
and radiation detectors. AIL previously had
developed the monitoring devices for U.S
Nuclear submarines.
1961 AIL exhibits at WESCON (Western Electronic Show &
Convention in San Francisco. AIL distributes 10,000 copies of
a 62 page book, "A Technical Review of Some Programs in A
popular article describes a radio system for In re-entry guidance
of a space vehicle ("Spacescan and the feasibility of a manned re-
entry vehicle ("Dyna-Soar") landing in a predetermined area.
1961 AIL's third military marketing office is opened in
Dayton, Ohio, near Wright Patterson Air Force Base.
1961 The Duplicate Bridge Club holds its first meeting of the
1961-62 season.
1962 Larry Paine of the ALL Medical and Biological
Physics Department takes first place in the
economy run sponsored by the Volkswagen Club
of Long Island. Paine averages 51.8 miles per
gallon over a 100 mile course from Wantagh to
Patchogue and back again over regular roads in
Sunday afternoon traffic. During a late night
tune-up run on the Sunken Meadow Parkway,
Paine's 1960 V.W. averages 76 miles per gallon.
1962 Governor Nelson Rockefeller tours AIL's Deer
Park plant and meets numerous staff members.

1962 A survey reveals that the average age of AILstaff
members is only 35.31 years.
1962 AIL installs the first Data-Phone in Suffolk It is used by
the Department of Aviation Systems Research in a project involving
a hyperbolic position determining system
1962 The USD-7 system undergoes its first flight test in
Greenville, Texas. The USD-7 award of $38.9 million in
1959 was AIL's largest contract to date.
1963 The Department of Aviation Systems Research,
working under a 3 year contract with the
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA),
develops a mathematical model that forms the
basis for a computer program capable of predic-
ting the maximum practical operating capacity of
any airport.
1963 Walter E. Tolles agrees to teach a special course on
electronic methods in clinical medicine at the Downstate
Medical Center. Tolles joined AIL in 1942 and in 1955
established AIL's Department of Medical and Biological
Physics. He left ALL in 1968 to complete his doctorate
in biophysics.
1963 President John F. Kennedy appoints Dr. Eugene F. Fubini,
one of the original AILers, as Assistant Secretary of Defense
for Research and Engineering.
1963 AIL uses a full-scale mockup of the Apollo spacecraft to test
the antennas it developed for the ground-based recovery teams. The
AIL antennas are to be used for homing signals and voice communications.
1963 Membership in the 5 year club passes the 1,000 mark. Club
membership doubled in just three years.
1963 Fortune magazine includes an article on "The Transistorized M.D.
" which highlights AIL's efforts to scan and interpret electrocardiograms.

1964 The computer group of Aviation Systems Research
acquired an IBM 1620-11 computer, the first of its kind
installed on the East Coast. This state-of-the-art computer
has an internal memory of 60,000 characters and a disk
pack capable of holding 4 million characters. AIL's computer
group had been organized in 1958 with a staff of 5 people.
By 1964 there were 17 people in the group.
1964 On July 25th, Dr. Hector R. Skifter, AlL's founder and
first president, dies at the age of 63. In September 1945 Dr.
Skifter led the effort to organize AIL as a separate corporation,
almost overnight, following the dropping of atomic bombs on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki the rapid surrender of Japan.
1964 A traffic light is installed at the intersection of Commack
Road and Grand Boulevard1964 .
1964 ALL delivers a payload to NASA that will measure a
little-known span of the cosmic noise spectrum (radio
frequencies emitted by planets and stars).
1965 Total coverage of AIL staff members in the Group Life
Insurance Plan tops $100. million
1965 A new ALL Waveguide Glide Slope Antenna has
its first operational installation at Nice Airport.
1965 The Department of Medical and Biological Physics completes a
3 year development by delivering the initial components of an automated
clinical laboratory system to the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda,
Maryland.
1965 The first Hector Skifter Memorial Scholarship is awarded to Leonard
Meyer, son of John A. Meyer. He used the $500 grant toward his engineering
program at C.W. Post.1965 The first Hector Skifter Memorial Scholarship is
awarded to Leonard Meyer, son of John A. Meyer. He used the $500 grant
toward his engineering program at C.W. Post.
1965 The first annual AIL Handicap Yacht Race is held off Lloyd's Point,
Huntington. Twelve sailboats participate.
1965 Effective October 1, the ALL Retirement Income Plan undergoes its
first major revision since-its establishment in May 1946. The main change is
that the basic plan is now non-contributory for employees.
1965 AIL honors its first twenty-year employees: Sidney J.Brass; Cyril H. Eady;
Winfield E. Fromm; Lyman C. Ihrig; John Masek; James A McDonough;
Charles B. Miller; Donald M. Miller; George W. Morton; George F.Seitz;
Rodney F. Simons; and Walter E. Tolles.
1966 Effective June 1st, staff members with 20 or
more years of continuous service receive 20
days paid vacation. In the first year, 34
employees are eligible.

1966 AIL Ham Radio Club has 81 members and is issuing a
monthly newsletter.
1966 A front page story in Electronic News discusses the
AIL developed PPS-5 Portable Battlefield Radar.
One unit is being tested in Viet Nam.
1966 AIL wins a production contract for the
AN/PPS-5 portable battlefield radar. The PPS-5
can detect personnel and vehicles at a distance of
6 miles. AIL began developing the PPS-5 in1960.
1966 Manfred T. Hall becomes the first 20 year employee
to retire. He came to AIL in January, 1946 from Harvard
University
1966 Governor Nelson Rockefeller visits the ALL Deer Park
plant. "Rocky" shakes the hands of hundreds of ALL employees
during his whirlwind visit.

1966 The AN/PPS-5 portable battlefield radar is being tested in
Germany by NATO. While the PPS-5 was being transferred by
ship in the North Sea, the ship's radar went dead in a heavy fog.
The crew unpacked the AIL portable radar which worked perfectly
and saved the day.
1966On October 29th, the Viet Nam war becomes a personal reality
at ALL. William G. Mansfield of Massapequa Park is killed in action,
the first AILer to give his life in Viet Nam. Mansfield, 21 years of age,
had worked at ALL as a trainee in the Machine and Sheet metal Shops
for the 11 months immediately prior to his induction into the armed services
1967 AIL takes possession of a 150,000 square foot
Research and Development Building in Farmingdale,
that formerly was part of Republic Aviation.
1967 AIL's "Christmas in July Program" sends 51 needy
children to summer camp.
1967 The "Sound Off, Please" column in the AlL Record contains
the following complaint: "Why is the company permitting the young
girls and women to prance about in these disgustingly short mini outfits?
I am not referring to the hemlines one or two inches above the knee,
but to the hemlines six to eight inches below the waist!... This mode
of dress definitely does not belong in a place of employment."
1967 AIL is awarded a $635,732 contract for the development of a
tactical aircraft scanning system called A-Scan. The system will transmit
azimuth and elevation guidance to approaching aircraft by means of angle-
coded scanning beams. Two people will be able to install an operating system
within ten minutes.
1968 AIL's Applied Electronics Division delivers a
10.6 micron infrared heterodyne receiver to NASA's
Goodard Space Flight Center. It will used for pioneering
research in laser communications in space. AIL began
work in infrared technology in 1964.
1968 First contractual delivery of EA-6B equipment made
to Grumman.
1968 Donald M. Miller is appointed Executive Vice President
of AIL's parent company, Cutler Hammer of Milwaukee.
John D. Dyer becomes the 3rd president of AIL and Winfield Fromm
becomes Executive Vice President.
1968 NBC and ABC use the ALL Model 4041 Radio Broadcast
Microphone to cover the political conventions. This portable
system weighs just 3 1/4 pounds and features a hand-held microphone
and a radio headset.
1968 "The Front Office" column appears in the AIL Record for the
first time. It was written by President John Dyer.
1969 AIL establishes a maternity leave policy pro viding
for "reinstatement of employment for those women who
left ALL temporarily because of 'blessed events'."
1969 The name of the company officially changes from "Airborne
Instruments Laboratory, Division of Cutler-Hammer" to "AIL, A
Division of Cutler-Hammer".
1969 On July 20th, the world watches the first humans walk on the
moon. AIL-built receiving stations in the world-wide Apollo and TV
communications networks play a key role in making this possible.
1969 AIL is awarded a $40.4 million contract for the AN/TPX-42
air traffic control system. It will provide 3-dimensional position
data correlated on the controller's display with aircraft identity
1970 AIL's Radar Engineering Department receives a
$1.4 million Coast Guard contract to develop a new airborne
radar to detect small boats in distress.
1970 AIL's new Quality Performance Program helps Electrical
Assembly Area 01 achieve zero defects in just 13 weeks.
1970 The EA-6B program team delivers its first production
On-Board System one month early.
1970 The Sheet Metal Shop achieves zero defects for a week.
This accomplishment was due to the combined efforts of 90
staff members on the day and night shifts.
1971 Aviation Week and Space Technology features a
24 page story about ALL's C-SCAN (Carrier System for controlled
Approach of Naval Air craft), an instrument landing system for aircraft carriers.
1971 On June 5th, 2,830 visitors attend "Saturday at ALL
'71," an open house for families and close friends of AIL
staff members. This is the second time in 25 years that ALL
held such an open house.
1971 The first Quality Improvement Awards for the Manufacturing
Division are presented to the Harness Area and the Paint and Finish
Area.
1971 The ALL Radio Astronomy Group listens to Apollo
15 on a homemade antenna. They picked up the 13 watt transmission
(1/4 of the output of a light bulb) at a distance of a quarter of a million
miles away. While NASA uses antennas with diameters of 85-210 feet,
the AILer's used Dick Knadle's homemade portable 12 foot parabolic antenna.
The AILer's used food cans to make the antenna feed horn. After measuring
the diameters of all the cans in a Farmingdale supermarket, they settled on an
American paint can and a Scottish oatmeal can. In recognition of this first
reception of NASA signals by a non-commercial antenna, Knadle is invited
to visit the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston.
1971 ALL conducts engineering feasibility tests on the Sagtikos Parkway.
AIL was working on a new system of motorist communications featuring
repeaters on light poles.
1971 The Radiation Systems Division wins the competition for a U.S.
Coast Guard Marine Traffic Radar System for San Francisco Harbor.
1972 AILTECH, a new operating unit, is formed by combining
AIL's Microwave Instrument Division with the recently purchased
Instrumentation Division of Microdot, Inc. of Los Angeles.
AILTECH will produce and market sophisticated commercial
test equipment.
1972 The AIL Radio Astronomy group "eavesdrops" on
the Apollo 16 moon landing mission. They taped over
15 hours of voice recordings of the mission.
1972 The Radiation Systems Division wins an important contract
in a new field for ALL: Radar detection and optical countermeasures
against anti-tank missiles.
1973 AIL's Executive Vice President, Winfield E. Fromm
becomes the 9th recipient of Dowling College's "Distinguished
Citizen Award". AIL's second president, Donald M. Miller, had
received the same prestigious award 6 years earlier, which is given
annually to a "Long Islander who has contributed to the growth,
prosperity, and vitality" of the region.
1973 The AIL Vessel Traffic System in San Francisco Bay is
honored for one year free of accidents involving major vessels.
There were 25,708 vessel movements in the bay in 1972.
1973 369 people attend the Five Year Club annual dinner.
A highlight was former president John Dyer playing some
of the recordings from his 1933-34 expedition to the Antarctic
with Admiral Richard E. Byrd.
1974 Eleanor Lisberg of the Personnel Department becomes the
first woman to complete 25 years of service with AIL. She joined
the company in 1949 as a Typist in the Publications Department.
1974 AIL achieves its first major milestone of the B-1 program
with the on-time completion of the Defensive Avionics Systems
Design Review (SDR).
1974 The first B-1 is "rolled out" of its hangar onto the air field
at Palmdale, California.
1975 The 101st Airborne Division receives a demonstration of
AIL's Tactical Landing System at its assault landing zone at Fort
Campbell, Kentucky.
1975 Dewitt Combs receives the first auto loan issued by the AIL
Employees Federal Credit Union.
1975 Secretary of the Navy J. William Middendorf II presents the
first annual Vice Admiral Robert B. Pine Award to the Navy Air
Traffic Controller of the year. AIL sponsored the award.
1976 The nation celebrates the Bicentennial of the
Declaration of Independence. In a letter to employees
AIL President Winfield Fromm writes: ''For 31 years the
people at AIL have tried to make a contribution, both to
the quality of life and the defense of freedom. It has been
said that the most important social service that a government
can do for its people is to keep them alive and free. On this
July 4th, 1976, let all of us at AIL resolve to continue to do
our part well for the cause of freedom."
1976 AIL libraries begin providing interactive, on-line literature
searches on a trial basis during the Dialog Information Retrieval
Service. Previously literature searches were done manually.
1976 At the Five Year Club annual dinner, Linda Bellotti
becomes the club's first female president.
1977 Space Shuttle "Enterprise" goes on its first solo flight
(separated from a 747) at the Dryden Flight Research
Center. AIL designed the landing system for the shuffle.
1977 The AIL cafeterias report using 68 pounds of coffee each
morning and 120 pounds of tuna fish per week.
1978 The fourth annual Bocci Playoff and Picnic is held
in Deer Park. For the 3rd consecutive year, the
"Baccalas" win the playoff.
1978 In the 33 years since its founding, AIL has been issued
142 patents stemming from the ideas of 166 different employees.
1978 AIL signs a $17.8 contract to provide a Vessel Traffic
Management System for the Suez Canal.
1979 Ron Fischer of Traffic Control Systems takes first prize
in a spaghetti sauce contest at Monte's Venetian Room in
South Brooklyn.
1980 Scientists and engineers from the Tokyo Astronomical
Laboratory visit AIL for design review of low noise RF
Amplifiers and converters AIL is providing for 2 radio telescopes.
The $3 million contract is AIL's largest ever for radio astronomy
equipment.
1980 Four representatives of the Civil Aviation Administration of
China visit AIL to discuss air traffic control for Canton Airport.
1980 AIL's Maintenance Department begins providing a place
where employees can bring waste motor oil in order not to pollute
the environment.
1980 On October 24th, AIL's Anechoic Chamber is destroyed by fire.
1981 Eaton President, James Stover makes his first visit to AIL. AIL
also celebrates President Reagan's decision to proceed with B-lB bomber.