Pioneer Instrument Company

Pioneer Instrument Company bubble sextant

The Pioneer Instrument Company was started by Morris Maxey Titterington and Brice Herbert Goldsborough in Brooklyn, New York in 1919. Charles Herbert Colvin was the president. They specialized in aeronautical instruments including a bubble sextant and the Earth Inductor Compass. The company later acquired control of Brandis & Sons, Inc., in 1922, and Pioneer was later acquired by the Bendix Aviation Corporation in 1928. As the United States was entering World War II, the company became the Pioneer Instrument Division of Bendix Aviation, and moved to New Jersey. By 1943 it had become the Eclipse-Pioneer Division of Bendix Aviation.

Products

• ST-90 for the Jupiter and early Saturn I
• ST-80 for the PGM-11 Redstone
• ST-120 for the Pershing missile
• ST-124-M3 inertial platform for the Saturn V

References

• New York Times; Wednesday, February 26, 1930; "Several long distance and overseas flights are being planned for the next few months, it was revealed yesterday in an announcement by Charles H. Colvin, president of the Pioneer Instrument Company, a unit in the Bendix Aviation Corporation."