Rockwell Collins

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Rockwell Collins, Inc.
Type Public NYSE: COL
Founded 1933
Headquarters Cedar Rapids, Iowa, USA
Key people Clayton M. Jones, Chairman, President, and CEO
Industry Aerospace
Products Avionics
Revenue $4.42 billion USD (▲ $585M FY 2007)
Employees 20,000 (2008)
Website rockwellcollins.com

Rockwell Collins, Inc. (NYSE: COL) is a large United States-based international company headquartered in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, primarily providing aviation and information technology systems, solutions, and services to governmental agencies and aircraft manufacturers.

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[edit] History

Arthur Collins founded Collins Radio Company in 1933 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa for the purpose of designing and producing shortwave radio equipment.

The company steadily grew, and captured the world's attention when Collins supplied the equipment to establish a communications link with the South Pole expedition of Rear Admiral Richard Byrd in 1933.

During the next three decades, Collins continued to expand its work in all phases of the communications field while broadening its technology thrust into numerous other disciplines. New developments such as flight control instruments, radio communication devices and satellite voice transmissions created great opportunities in the marketplace. Collins Radio Company provided communications for America's role in the Space Race, including equipment for astronauts to communicate with earth stations and equipment to track and communicate with spacecraft. Collins communications equipment was used for Projects Mercury, Gemini and Apollo, providing voice communication for every American astronaut traveling through space. In 1973, the U.S. Skylab Program used Collins equipment to provide communication from the astronauts to earth.

[edit] Products

[edit] Transmitters

In the mid 1930s, the Collins Radio Company constructed and sold transmitters and audio mixing consoles to the broadcast industry. The model 12, the first manufactured broadcast console, was called a "speech input assembly". Due to the Great Depression, fewer than 100 were sold, with only a handful remaining today. The company was more successful constructing broadcast transmitters, selling well over a thousand up to the start of the second World War.

Collins was an important manufacturer of broadcast radio transmitters for the commercial market in the 1960s and 1970s. The transmitter line was later sold to Continental Electronics, which continued to produce a number of Collins designs under its own nameplate before phasing them out in the 1980s. Many Collins transmitters remain in service, primarily as backups for more modern equipment.

[edit] Receivers

Around 1947, the company introduced their first amateur radio receiver, the 75A-1. This set achieved excellent stability for the time due to high build quality and the use of a permeability tuned oscillator (PTO) in its second conversion stage. It was one of the few double conversion superheterodynes on the market and covered only the amateur bands.

With the experience gained in the design of the 75A-1, Collins released the 51J-1 receiver, a general coverage HF set covering .5 to 30 MHz. It would be produced in somewhat updated versions (51J-2, 51J-3, 51J-4) for about a decade. It found use in military and commercial settings but was too expensive for most enthusiasts. In the military it was known as the R-388 and was used in multiple receiver diversity RTTY installations.

The 75A amateur line was updated throughout the early 50's, finishing with the 75A-4, which was released in 1955. The Collins mechanical filter was introduced to consumers in the 75A-3, and the 75A-4 was one of the first receivers marketed specifically as a single sideband receiver.

Around 1950, Collins began designing the R-390 (.5 - 30 MHz) for the US military. This was intended to be a receiver of the highest performance available, with the ruggedness and serviceability required for military duty. It featured direct mechanical digital frequency readout. The set is composed of several modules for easy field repair--a bad module could simply be swapped out and repaired later, or junked. Sets built during the original 1951 contract cost the government about $2500 each and around 16,000 were produced.

Concurrently, Collins developed the R-389, a longwave version with fewer than 1000 made. The R-391, another variant of the R-390, allowed choice of 8 different autotuned channels. The three radios shared common power supplies, audio and intermediate frequency modules.

About three years later, Collins delivered the R-390A (see picture and comprehensive history) to the military. While nominally a cost-reduced R-390 (savings of about $250 each), its design compromises were minimal, and it added mechanical filters for improved selectivity. The gear-driven tuning and band change mechanisms were simplified and the parts count reduced. About 54,000 were produced and the set was a military workhorse until the 1970s. Like the R-390, it can outperform many modern radios, to the point that it was designated top secret until the late 1960s.

Around 1958 Collins replaced the 75A series with the much smaller 75S series. These featured mechanical filters, very accurate frequency readout, and excellent stability. At the request of the US government, Collins designed the 51S-1 general coverage set, which was essentially (in intended use) a physically smaller replacement for the 51J series. It was not intended as a replacement for the higher performance R-390A, and unlike the R-390A, it was extensively marketed for commercial use.

Collins produced a few high performance solid state receivers in the 1970s, such as the 651S-1. Like their tube predecessors, these are coveted by collectors today.

[edit] Rockwell Collins

After facing financial difficulties, the Collins Radio Company was purchased by Rockwell International in 1973. In 2001 the avionics division of Rockwell International was spun-off to form the current Rockwell Collins, Inc., retaining its name. Rockwell Collins is highly concentrated in the defense and commercial avionics markets and no longer markets receivers to the public. The Collins mechanical filter is still in production and does, however, find consumer and commercial use.

The company has acquired several companies, including Hughes-Avicom's in-flight entertainment business, Sony's in-flight entertainment business (Sony Trans Com),Intertrade Ltd., Flight Dynamics, K Systems, Inc. (Kaiser companies), Communication Solutions, Inc., Airshow, Inc., NLX (Simulation Business), portions of Evans & Sutherland, TELDIX GmbH, and IP Unwired.

The company is among the major suppliers of in-flight entertainment on board aircraft. Rockwell Collins' key competitors in this industry include Panasonic Avionics Corporation, Thales Group, and JetBlue's IFE subsidiary LiveTV.

The company today employs over 19,000 people and has an annual turnover in excess of 3.4 billion US dollars. Its chairman, president and CEO is Clayton M. Jones. It is currently undergoing a massive expansion of its work force and attempting to hire thousands of new employees by 2010 to replace retirees and expand its operations.

[edit] Organizational structure

Rockwell Collins has two main divisions:

  • Commercial Systems (CS)
  • Government Systems (GS)

The CS division services the commercial airline industry and business aircraft, providing navigation, communication, In Flight Entertainment (IFE), Synthetic vision and other cockpit products such as autoland autopilots. The GS division services primarily the US government and military, but also provides some products and services to foreign governments with close ties to the United States. Notable government related projects that Rockwell Collins has involvement with are Common Avionics Architecture System (CAAS), Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS), TTNT, Defense Advanced GPS Receiver (DAGR), and Future Combat Systems.

[edit] Advanced Technology Center

The Advanced Technology Center is a large department inside of Rockwell Collins that focuses on research and development. It has several sub areas namely Advanced Computing, Advanced Radio, Communications and Navigation, as well as Information Systems. Other prominent divisions in the company include display systems, flight controls, and navigation systems.

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