History ContinuedHydra-Electric switches have been chosen most, in hundreds of critical aerospace programs.Hydra-Electric started its business in 1948 where it is today, at the heart of the aerospace development community in Burbank, California. Hydra began working closely with Lockheed Martin's engineering facility in the 1950’s providing them with pressure switches for many of their early aircraft, such as the U2 and the SR71 Blackbird. Hydra-Electric’s first product was actually not a pressure switch but a fuel tank valve for aircraft built by General Dynamics. The fuel tank valve allowed the aircraft to distribute fuel evenly between the two aircraft wings, so that it was balanced during flight. Our first pressure switch was designed for the Lockheed T-33. The switch is quite similar to today’s designs, as it incorporated a negative rate disk spring and many other common features found in today’s units. Hydra-Electric switches were also chosen for America's first major jets, such as the P80, F86, F100, F104, B52 and B707. In the 1960’s, switches were created for the X15, F4, DC8, DC9 and most NASA space flights, including the Apollo moon missions. Since 1970, thousands of systems were developed in global military and commercial aerospace applications. Today, Hydra-Electric switches are widely used on military, commercial, business jet and helicopter operating systems; turboprop, turboshaft, turbofan and rocket engines; weapons systems, ships and numerous industrial and commercial applications. In the last 60 years, Hydra-Electric has provided nearly all of the major airframe manufacturers and aircraft system design companies with pressure, flow, and temperature switches. |  |
