Astronautics Corporation of America

Astronautics Corporation of America (ACA) is a US supplier, designer, and manufacturer of avionics equipment to airlines, governments, commercial and defense aircraft manufacturers, and other avionics systems integrators, established in 1959. Products are used for air, sea, ground, missile and space applications. Over 150,000 aircraft have been equipped with Astronautics equipment. Astronautics products electronic flight instrument systems, electronic flight bags, engine indicating and crew alerting systems, network server systems, multifunction displays, mission and display processors and systems, flight directors, flight control systems, inertial guidance systems, air data computers, and autopilots.

In June 1959, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, brother and sister Nate Zelazo and Norma Paige started the Astronautics Corporation of America as an advanced technology aerospace company. Zelazo had been employed by the Navy Department, and the company's small staff had an extensive background in designing and developing flight instrumentation. The company began to seek business with the military, initially working with local universities, and obtained a program from the US Air Force investigating fuel management techniques for space vehicle orbital rendezvous. It later sought further involvement in Navy, Army and Air Force flight instrumentation production programs.

In the latter half of the 1960s, Astronautics received backing from the American City Bank and Trust Company, which became bankrupt in the 1973-75 recession; Zelazo hired its former CEO, Pete Erickson, as Astronautics' CFO in 1976. Erickson worked for the company for the thirteen years until his retirement, investing in the stock and bond market and arranging the purchase of a corporate building on Teutonia Avenue in the city's west side in 1982, still the company's headquarters. He also handled the financial side of the purchase of Astronautics’ subsidiary, Kearfott Corporation, in 1988 from Singer Corporation.