I was working at Collins Radio in Cedar Rapids when that happened. Art
kept dumping money into the computer business, but was always behind the
curve technically. He might even have been able to sell some smaller
systems, but he wouldn't let anyone do that and kept chasing the big
systems where his specs weren't good enough to actually sell anything.
Even by 1973 everything we built was still magnetic core memory in spite
of the fact that semiconductor memory had been introduced elsewhere a
couple of years earlier.
At one point Art literally sold the big backup generators (I think there
were three of them) at the Cedar Rapids plant where I worked and
immediately leased them back ... the cash was needed to meet payroll. I
think it only lasted two weeks if I remember correctly. Shortly
thereafter he was forced to sell anyway, and Rockwell made the best offer.
Collins Radio might still be in independent business if Art hadn't bet
the farm on computers since the avionics business was very solid, and
the military business was decent. Art was a terrible business manager
and wouldn't listen to anyone that tried to tell him something he didn't
want to hear ... one of those top down guys that outgrew his expertise.
73,
Dave AB7E
On 3/30/2022 8:54 PM, KENT TRIMBLE wrote:
Art Collins was forced to sell the Collins Radio Company to North
American Rockwell (not Raytheon) in order to avoid bankruptcy after
literally betting the store on his C-system computer. It was therefore
Rockwell-Collins (not Raytheon) that built the KWM-380 and Senator
Barry Goldwater received the first production radio.
73,
Kent K9ZTV
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