Industry Aerospace and defense Founder Howard Hughes Fates Boeing, L3 Technologies | Headquarters Torrance Founded 1967 | |
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Predecessor Hughes Aircraft Company, Electron Dynamics Division (EDD) Products Traveling wave tubes, TWTAs, xenon ion propulsion systems | ||
Electron Technologies, Inc. (ETI) (formerly Electron Dynamics Division (EDD), a division of Hughes Aircraft Company) is a technology company specializing in the manufacture of microwave devices for ground-based, airborne and satellite communications and radar. ETI began operations at their Torrance, California, facility in 1967. They are known for their traveling-wave tubes (TWTs), traveling-wave tube amplifiers (TWTAs) and electronic power conditioners (EPCs) as well as xenon ion propulsion systems (XIPS). Since its inception, ETI has produced tens of thousands of TWTs. They are the only U.S. supplier of space-qualified TWTs and TWTAs.
History
In the early 1950s, Hughes secured a military contract for the XF-108 Rapier interceptor's AN/ASG-18 fire control system and radar. At the end of the Korean War, the F-108 program was canceled, but Howard Hughes chose to keep the program going on company money. By 1959 Hughes Microwave Tube Division was operating in Culver City, California. The Microwave Tube Division was developing TWTs suitable for airborne radar and eventually won the contract for the F-14 radar system. By the time the F-14 program went into production, the tube division had outgrown the Culver City facility. Hughes moved the operation to Torrance, California, and it became Electron Dynamics Division (EDD).
General Motors purchased Hughes Aircraft Company in 1985 and renamed the Torrance operations Electron Dynamics, a subsidiary of Hughes Electronics, maintaining the initials EDD. The Boeing Company purchased GM's satellite operation in 2000, acquiring EDD in the process, and renamed it Boeing Satellite Systems, Electron Dynamic Devices, again maintaining the initials EDD. Boeing sold EDD to L3 Communications, Inc. in 2005. L3 communications already owned another company with the initials EDD, thereby prompting a name change to L3 communications, Electron Technologies, Inc. or ETI for short. Boeing sold the property in Torrance to RREEF America REIT III Corporation (RREEF) in October 2006.
In mid-2016 L-3 announced they were consolidating their microwave products companies. Most of the San Carlos, California facility, L-3 Electron Devices Division, would be moving to and combining with L-3 ETI. The new company would be known as L3, Electron Devices Division, thereby returning the initials EDD to the Torrance facility.