'Librascope' was a
Glendale, California division of
General Precision Inc. founded in 1937 by Lewis W. Imm to improve aircraft
load balancing, and acquired by General Precision in 1941.
Librascope was a manufacturer of early digital computers sold in both the business and defense markets. They hired
Stan Frankel, a
Manhattan Project veteran and early
ENIAC programmer, to design the
LGP-30 desktop computer in 1956.
Librascope was eventually purchased by
Singer Corporation and moved into the manufacture of marine systems for the defense industry. The company specialized in Fire control systems for torpedoes - though they continued to work on a variety of other smaller military contracts through the 1970s.
After Singer was taken over by
corporate raider Paul Bilzerian, the company was sold to
Loral in 1992. The division was eventually sold to
Lockheed-Martin and was eventually absorbed into the Lockheed-Martin Federal Systems, but is now called Lockheed-Martin NE&SS-Undersea Systems.
According to documents on history.nasa.gov, the
Centaur second stage rocket used a "Librascope 3"
External links
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LGP-30 description
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LGP-21 description
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Story of Stan P. Frankel, designer of the LGP-30
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Librascope C141 airborne navigation computer
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Librascope L90-I general purpose aerospace computer
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Librascop L600 aircraft and missile guidance computer
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Librascope L2010 general purpose rugged computer
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Librascope L3055 data processor for 473L system
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Air Force 473L global communications system