Calspan Corporation
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Calspan Corporation is a science and technology company which was originally founded in 1943 as part of the Research Laboratory of the Curtiss-Wright Airplane Division at Buffalo, N.Y.
It operated under the name Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory from 1946 until 1972 when Cornell University reorganized the lab as the for-profit Calspan Corporation and then sold its stock in Calspan to the public.
Calspan was the first in a series of corporate owners that have included Arvin Industries, Space Industries International, Veridian Corporation and General Dynamics.
In 2005, Calspan Corporation was returned to independent ownership when a local management group purchased the Aeronautics and Transportation Testing Groups of the Western New York operation from General Dynamics.
Among the major accomplishments of Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory (while operating under that name) were inventions of the first crash test dummy in 1948, the automotive seat belt in 1951, the first mobile field unit with Doppler radar for weather-tracking in 1956, the first accurate airborne simulation of another aircraft (the North American X-15) in 1960, the first successful demonstration of an automatic terrain-following radar system in 1964, the first use of a laser beam to successfully measure gas density in 1966, the first independent HYGE sled test facility to evaluate automotive restraint systems in 1967, the mytron, an instrument for research on neuromuscular behavior and disorders in 1969, and the prototype for the Federal Bureau of Investigation's fingerprint reading system in 1972.
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