COLLINS PRESENTATION

Collins Radio in WWII

July 1937 – Japan invades China

Rise of Nazi power in Germany –March of 1938 Germany invades Austria – Britain and France do nothing

Next Czechoslovakia and then Poland in September of 1939

United States was isolationistA measure of prosperity had returned to the States following the Great Depression

Starting in 1939 Germany sinks Atlantic Merchant ships and that builds in 1940 1 in 26 merchant sailer’s loose life

May of 1940 Germany invades France and July of 1940 Germany starts Battle of Britain

March of 1941 US passes Lend Lease Act

December 7, 1941 – Pearl Harbor – December 8 – US declares war on Japan and December 11 on Germany

Collins Radio

Founded in 1933 by 24 year old Arthur Collins – it focused on Transmitter development

Collins 1930’s products included Broadcast, Amateur and Aviation radios

From a WWII perspective the development of the Autotune was the most relevant product

Collins had produced some multi frequency transmitters using multiple 100 watt transmitters controlled by relays and sold them to Braniff, American and Standard Oil – but Art had diner with Frank Dyer of Braniff in Dallas while flying back to Cedar and decided that a continuously tunable full Autotune transmitter was needed. On the way home Art came up with the concept of the Autotune. This was a mechanical contraption that would remember a number of rotary positions and be able to return a shaft back to that position (including multiple turns) on command. Its first iteration was clunky and required two motors. Pete Morison, a mechanical engineering professor from Ohio State was hired and he brought on Bob Cochran, one of his students. Machinery was purchased and thus began the development of the Autotune.

TWA, American and Braniff bought into the concept and purchased the Autotune radios

By 1939 the US Navy department came up the ATC specifications and in 1940 RCA delivered the ATD

Collins was to deliver their prototype ATC to the Navy in 1941 but had to delay it a week as the meeting was scheduled for December 8, 1941. Obviously, the Navy was preoccupied with the events of the previous day and a week later the ATC was delivered to the Navy. The Navy was concerned with the small size of the Collins Radio Company (Art was only 32 at the time – but the Brits said they would buy them so the US Navy jumped on board. Before war’s end Collins would produce over 63,000 ART -13’s and over 90,000 were built in total as Collins Radio subcontracted some of the radios.

This transmitter was used by the Navy in larger aircraft, ship based and land based. The Army then picked up the radio. It was used in a variety of aircraft including the B-29 Superfortress.

Grumman 18F Avenger

PBY

Marine PBJ

Curtiss Helldiver

Martin Mariner

B-29 Superfortress

Lancaster Bomber

Collins Radio Growth

1940 Cedar Rapids was a city of 62,000 and covered 30 Square miles

Collins Radio employed about 500 people and had about 60,000 sf of space

During the war the workforce rose to over 3,000 and the company took over almost all of the available space in the city with over 200,000 sf of production space and 100,000 sf of admin and support space. In 1942 Collins found itself with over $50,000,000 in contracts!

Overseeing that growth was a management team of

MH Collins (Art’s Father), Frank Davis – General Manager of Design, Bill Barkley – Exec VP of Sales, Bob Gates – VP Finance, Morgan Craft – General Manager of Operations, EM Finney – General Manger of Operations and SJ Storm –Treasurer and Controller.

In April of 1943 MH Collins fell ill and after a two week illness passed away – a huge blow to the company.