Kraft Systems
From RC transmitters to joysticks, a pioneer in control systems.
Kraft Systems, Inc., was an American electronics company based in San Diego County, California, that operated from 1962 until 1994. It started out making transmitters for radio-controlled model airplanes and later became a major supplier of joysticks for home and personal computers.
The company was founded by Philip O. Kraft, a lifelong model aircraft enthusiast who had designed rubber-powered free-flight models as a child. After earning a business administration degree from the University of Southern California in the 1940s, he worked intermittently as a freelance and full-time designer of radio-control transmitters through the 1950s and early 1960s. In 1962, he started Kraft Systems in his Pasadena garage, later explaining that he was a manufacturer's representative who had grown tired of the rat race. His mother, Virginia Kraft, sold her Pasadena insurance agency to become the company’s comptroller and office manager. The business moved out of the garage in 1964 to an industrial plant in South El Monte, California. By 1968, Kraft Systems employed 80 people and reported gross revenue of $2 million, up from about $660,000 the year before. In February 1968, the company bought a 6.5-acre plot in Vista, California, for a warehouse, and construction of a 15,000-square-foot headquarters began that July, finishing in January 1969. About 45 more workers were hired locally, bringing the total workforce to 125 by mid-1969. Kraft remained in Vista until it dissolved in 1994.
Kraft quickly became one of the largest U.S. makers of RC transmitters for model planes. In 1970, the company reported $2.5 million in sales, while the entire model plane industry that year brought in $15 million. In June 1972, the Carlisle Corporation of Cincinnati, Ohio, announced it had bought Kraft Systems for an undisclosed sum. Carlisle kept Kraft as an independently managed subsidiary, with Phil Kraft staying on as president. By 1977, the company was selling 400 RC transmitter units per week and had 150 employees.
After the acquisition, Kraft began expanding beyond hobbyists, offering joysticks for professional and industrial use. In 1974, Twentieth Century-Fox hired the company to design model helicopters and the transceiver system used as practical special effects in *The Towering Inferno*.
Quick Facts
- Num Employees
- 250 (1981, peak)
- Founder
- Philip O. Kraft
- Founded
- in Pasadena, California, United States
- Hq Location
- Vista, California (1969–1994)
- Industry
- Electronics
- Products
- Radio-control transmitters · Joysticks
- Defunct
- 1994
- Fate
- Intellectual property acquired by MicroSpeed, Inc.
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
Kraft Systems was founded by Philip O. Kraft, a model aircraft hobbyist since childhood, who began designing transmitters for radio-controlled models in the 1950s and early 1960s. He started the company from his garage in Pasadena, California, in 1962, with his mother Virginia Kraft serving as comptroller and office manager. The company moved to South El Monte in 1964 and later built a 15,000-square-foot headquarters in Vista, California, completed in January 1969. By 1970, Kraft was one of the largest U.S. manufacturers of RC transmitters for model planes, reporting $2.5 million in sales that year. In June 1972, the Carlisle Corporation of Cincinnati, Ohio, acquired Kraft Systems, keeping it as an independently managed subsidiary with Phil Kraft remaining president. By 1977, the company sold 400 RC transmitter units weekly and employed 150 workers.
After the acquisition, Kraft expanded into joysticks for professional and industrial use. In 1974, Twentieth Century-Fox commissioned Kraft to design model helicopters and the associated transceiver system for The Towering Inferno. In the mid-1970s, Henson Associates commissioned Kraft to design special transceivers for The Muppet Show. In 1981, Kraft introduced joysticks for the graphical computer workstation market, and in 1982 launched the Premium line of joysticks for home computers, which sold well and became a fixture of the personal computer games industry. Kraft was one of the first manufacturers to offer joysticks for the IBM Personal Computer in 1982, and IBM later commissioned Kraft to manufacture joysticks for the PCjr. By the end of 1983, Kraft sold $12 million worth of joysticks and was Vista's third-largest employer with 100 workers. The company maintained domestic manufacturing, hiring local students, but later outsourced some production to East Asia. In 1994, MicroSpeed, Inc., acquired Kraft's intellectual property, ending Kraft as a manufacturing concern.
Reader's Guide
Kraft Systems is notable for its dual impact on two distinct markets: radio-controlled model aircraft and personal computer gaming peripherals. In the 1960s and early 1970s, it became one of the largest U.S. manufacturers of RC transmitters for model planes, capturing a significant share of a $15 million industry. Its pivot to joysticks in the early 1980s proved highly successful, with the Premium line becoming a fixture of the PC gaming industry. Kraft's early entry into joysticks for the IBM Personal Computer and its commission by IBM for the PCjr underscore its influence in the nascent home computer market. The company's legacy includes its patented gimbal technologies, which it adapted from industrial controls and RC transmitters to consumer joysticks. Despite its eventual dissolution after selling its intellectual property to MicroSpeed in 1994, Kraft Systems remains a key example of a company that successfully transitioned from a niche hobbyist market to a broader technology sector.
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