Avionics News January 2016 - 46
series B Y TODD WINTER: P A T R I C I A L U E B K E Mid-Continent Instruments and Avionics L ong-time avionics industry veterans will recognize the significance of Todd Winter's birthplace: Boonton, New Jersey. It was the headquarters of Aircraft Radio Control, one of the nation's pioneering avionics companies that was later acquired by Cessna. His father worked at ARC on some of the first autopilot systems for general aviation. "I was born right into the industry," Winter said. "I was probably hooked from the start." Soon after, his father was lured away by a company that built a key component for autopilots, and the family moved to Houston, Texas. The owner of the company was a general aviation pilot who transported the Winter family from Boonton to Houston in his Cessna 310. "All of our furniture went by truck, and for a 4-year old boy, the flight was quite the experience," Winter said. "I still remember it." His family lived in an interesting neighborhood, right across the street from NASA. "My neighbors and friends and their dads all worked in mission control or their dads were astronauts - the McDivitts, the Aldrins, the Cunninghams and quite a few others." One friend was Buzz Aldrin's son, Andy, who bragged not about his father being one of the first men on the moon, but rather how his dad had actually placed a phone call home from a Learjet. "It was an interesting place to grow up," Winter said. His father, also a pilot, would take them on trips to Mexico and to a family This 1941 Staggerwing, and a Bonanza, are corporate aircraft owned by beach house in Bolivar, Texas, near Galveston, Mid-Continent Instruments and Avionics. where they could land on the beach and taxi to the 46 avionics news * january 2016
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