MarathonNorco Aerospace, Inc.
About MarathonNorco Aerospace, Inc.
For over 35 years Marathon in Waco, Texas has successfully served Commercial and Military Aviation markets with reliable cost effective power products. Marathon provides a total solution to aircraft power needs from Engine, APU Starting, Emergency Power & 3-Phase AC, to Ground Support and Battery Maintenance.
Norco, Inc., formerly in Ridgefield, Connecticut, has been a Partner In Design since 1954. Working with design engineers from around the world, Norco has designed and developed a wide range of mechanical hold open rods and application specific and special coupling devices for commercial and military aerospace. Backed by quality control programs recognized by ISO 9001 certification, each Norco product is engineered to meet and exceed your expectations. In 2003 Marathon Power Technologies Co. and Norco, Inc. consolidated with the Norco operations transferred to Waco, Texas.
MarathonNorco Aerospace, Inc. is wholly owned by TransDigm Group Inc., headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio with over 400 million dollars in annual revenue. TransDigm Group companies manufacture and supply a broad range of engineered aerospace products for civil and military applications. The TransDigm family includes ten (10) key companies: Adams Rite Aerospace, AdelWiggins Group, ADS/Transicoil, AeroControlex Group, Avionics Instruments, Inc., Avtech Corporation, CDA Intercorp, Champion Aerospace Inc., Skurka Aerospace, Inc., and MarathonNorco Aerospace, Inc.
History
Marathon Battery was incorporated in 1923 and began producing carbon-zinc dry batteries and cells. During World War II and the Korean War, the company was an important supplier of military batteries and won the coveted Army and Navy "E" award for its excellence. Marathon was given the "E" award for it's continued effort in the development of new or improved battery products.
In 1948 the company initiated development of nickel-cadmium batteries and became the first company in the United States to manufacture a rechargeable, sintered plate nickel-cadmium battery. In the early 1950's the company began to produce nickel-cadmium batteries for the United States Atomic Energy Commission and for the United States Army Nike Missile program. After producing millions of ampere-hours of batteries for missiles, the company began to design batteries to meet stringent aircraft applications. After testing and acceptance by the United States Air Force Strategic Air Command, nickel-cadmium batteries were adopted for the B-47 bomber fleet. The introduction of other models for military, commercial, and corporate aircraft rapidly made Marathon's batteries the industry leader.
Marathon also lead the way with sealed batteries that became the first to power satellites and were used on such projects as Explorer, Pioneer, Midas, Tiros, Transit, Courier, Greb, Oso, Relay, Syncom, Nimbus, Alouette and Isis. Marathon powered spacecraft have set longevity records for continuous, successful operation.
During the mid-1960's a great deal of research and development work was done to develop batteries with greater capacity per unit of volume and weight than the traditional carbon-zinc battery. After testing by the United States Army Signal Corps had indicated that the magnesium-manganese dioxide dry battery had excellent shelf life characteristics at elevated-temperatures, a contract was negotiated with the government to produce BA-4386 batteries. In 1968 Marathon began to production of the BA-4386 for use as the power source in the PRC-25 and PRC-77 transceivers sets.
Marathon continued to manufacture carbon-zinc batteries at Wausau, Wisconsin, magnesium batteries at St. Paul Minnesota, vented and sealed nickel-cadmium batteries at Cold Spring and Roe Park, New York but Marathon was rapidly outgrowing its production facilities as new markets developed. By 1978 the company had consolidated all of its operations in a modern 200,000 square foot (18,000 square meter) manufacturing plant in Waco, Texas, where the company continued manufacturing nickel-cadmium batteries, magnesium batteries and carbon-zinc batteries.
In 1981 Marathon Battery acquired Flite-Tronics Company, the world's leading manufacturer of static inverters for aircraft. More than 30 airframe manufacturers specify Flite-Tronics inverters as original equipment to power navigational equipment radar and flight instruments. Flite-Tronics innovative approach to the market is the constant improvement and quality raising the industry bar for performance. In 2006 the Flite-Tronics product line was transferred to Avionics Instruments, Inc., another company within the TransDigm Group.
In 2000 Marathon Power Technologies Company acquired Christie Electric Corp. Christie designs and manufactures equipment for the direct current (DC) power market. This includes battery chargers/analyzers as well as industrial DC power supplies. The charger/analyzer product line consists of the CASP and RF80 designs. The CASP (charger-analyzer-sequencer-power supply) is a versatile, user-friendly, microprocessor-based, precision instrument for supporting rechargeable batteries of all types. CASP is sold to military, medical, aviation, professional video, industrial and OEM customers. Christie's RF80 charger/analyzer supports vented nickel-cadmium and sealed or vented lead-acid aircraft batteries. The RF80-K is the industry standard, used by the US Air Force as well as many major airlines around the world. As an aid to effective aircraft battery maintenance, the RF80-K is without peer.
In 2003 Marathon Power Technologies Company acquired Norco, Inc. Norco, Inc. was a Connecticut based company that has designed and developed a wide range of custom engineered hold open rods, mechanical couplings, connectors, and specialty mechanical devices. Additionally, it maintains a line of specialty power transmission products. The consolidation brought the two companies together housed in Waco, TX with the new name of MarathonNorco Aerospace, Inc.
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