Astronics Corporation

Astronics is a public company based in East Aurora, New York, founded in 1968 and listed on Nasdaq as ATRO, with roughly 2,700 employees. It has grown mostly by acquisition and still runs as a federation of named operating units rather than a single integrated manufacturer. The businesses include Astronics Advanced Electronic Systems, AeroSat, Ballard Technology, Connectivity Systems and Certification, Custom Control Concepts, DME, Luminescent Systems, PECO, PGA and Astronics Test Systems. Reporting is split into two segments, Aerospace and Test.

The Aerospace segment covers five product areas. Power and motion is the historical core: aircraft electrical power generation, conversion and distribution, including the CorePower solid state power distribution systems used on business aircraft and units such as the Regulated Power Conversion Unit and Dual Frequency Converter Unit. The EmPower in-seat power system, which supplies passenger device charging across a large share of the commercial fleet, comes from the same business. On the defence side the same unit has a long line of aircraft and missile power work, dating back to weapons release test sets for the F-111 and F-16 and test systems for the B-1B.

Lighting is the second area and spans cabin and ambient lighting, cockpit lighting including night vision compatible avionics displays and control panels, exterior lighting such as anti-collision, position, landing and taxi lights, and emergency lighting. Safety systems cover emergency beacons, escape path systems, first aid provision and the Max-Viz enhanced vision cameras, which are also used on rotorcraft and special mission aircraft.

Connectivity and data is where Ballard Technology and AeroSat sit. The products are aircraft interface devices, avionics data bus hardware and smart sensing systems, alongside in-flight entertainment and connectivity hardware and the Avenir cabin management and entertainment system for VIP aircraft. Interiors and structures adds passenger service units, environmental control systems, fuel access doors and composite, die-cast and machined structural parts.

The Test segment is a separate business with close to sixty years of history in automated test. Astronics Test Systems builds automated test equipment, PXI, VXI and LXI instrumentation, switching and radio frequency interface units, maintenance trainers and the ActivATE test management software. Its most significant defence position is in tactical radio test. The company was competitively awarded the US Army TS-4549/T radio test set programme, a firm fixed price indefinite delivery contract worth up to about 215 million dollars over five years, covering test and maintenance for the Army's radio fleet. The commercial version of that technology is the ATS-3200 radio test set, which supports SINCGARS, SRW, WNW and HAVEQUICK waveforms and adds MIL-STD-1553 and an integrated unit under test power supply. Earlier platforms in the same line include the ATS-6100 radio test set, which consolidates nineteen instruments into one box, the ATS-5034 system level test platform, and the CTS-6000 and CTS-6010 communications and navigation testers. The segment also builds semiconductor test equipment and PXI instruments such as the PXIe-1802 arbitrary waveform generator and PXIe-1803 digitizer, serving space, medical and mass transit customers as well as defence.