Kearfott is a defense equipment manufacturer founded in 1918 in
New Jersey, United States. It is based in
Woodland Park.
Today the electronics division is part of
BAE Systems
BAE Systems plc is a British Multinational corporation, multinational Aerospace industry, aerospace, military technology, military and information security company, based in London. It is the largest manufacturer in Britain as of 2017. It is ...
, while the remaining Kearfott Guidance & Navigation division is a subsidiary of the
Astronautics Corporation of America. It also has locations in Black Mountain, North Carolina and Matamoros, Mexico.
History
Kearfott Corporation was founded in 1918 by William Dunham Kearfott.
It became the Kearfott Division of the
General Precision Equipment Corporation in 1955 and then, in 1968, the Kearfott Division of
Singer Business Corporation.
In 1987 Singer split Kearfott; the Kearfott Guidance & Navigation division was sold to the
Astronautics Corporation of America in 1988, and the Electronic Systems Division was purchased by
Plessey. In 1990
GEC-Marconi bought Plessey and renamed the unit in
Wayne, New Jersey
Wayne is a Township (New Jersey), township in Passaic County, New Jersey, Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Home to William Paterson University and located less than from Midtown Manhattan, the township is a bedroom suburb of New ...
GEC-Marconi Electronic Systems.
Kearfott Guidance & Navigation Corporation officially changed its name to Kearfott Corporation effective June 1, 2008, reflecting the fact that the scope of the company's business was not limited to guidance and navigation products.
Projects
Among the many vehicles and devices that contain a Kearfott built Inertial Navigation Unit (INU), is the Northrop-built Global Hawk. The KN-4072 and the KN-4074 are the preferred MRLG (Monolithic Ring Laser Gyro) units for Northrop's Global Hawk. The KN-4072a and the KN-4074 are based upon the KN-4071 design series, with a few key differences, most noticeably their enclosures and interfaces.
Kearfott built the
inertial navigation system
An inertial navigation system (INS; also inertial guidance system, inertial instrument) is a navigation device that uses motion sensors (accelerometers), rotation sensors (gyroscopes) and a computer to continuously calculate by dead reckoning th ...
for the
Pershing II missile and for the Space Shuttle.
Kearfott integrating gyroscopes (P/N C702519018-4) were used in the rate gyros for the Apollo Telescope Mount / Orbital Workshop (aka Skylab).
References
External links
*
www.astronautics.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kearfott Guidance and Navigation
Technology companies established in 1918
Companies based in Passaic County, New Jersey
Companies based in North Carolina
1918 establishments in New Jersey