Grimes Manufacturing Company

The Grimes Manufacturing Company was founded by Warren G. Grimes in 1933.^[2] Grimes was given the idea after a small plane manufacturer that he visited in 1932 suggested that they would like to have a better light.^[3] Grimes used a portion of the Armbruster building before moving to an 1,800-square-foot (170 m²) converted garage on North Russell Street, where the company was started in November 1933.^[4][5]

During World War II, the company built an additional building to handle the increased production.^[6] At the same time, it built Grimes Field, which it continued to operate until 1987.^[7] It again expanded in 1966, when construction began on a new 42,000-square-foot (3,900 m²) addition.^[8]

From the 1960s to the 1980s, the company operated a Beech 18 called the Grimes Flying Lab to test its lights.^[9][10][a]

In 1977, Grimes was purchased by the Midland-Ross Corporation.^[12] Less than two years later Midland-Ross announced its intention to purchase a building at the Greenwood County Airport in Greenwood, South Carolina for the manufacturing operations of Grimes.^[13] Then, in 1981, Midland-Ross acquired the Mansfield Aircraft Products Company and made it a subsidiary of what was by then the Grimes Division.^[14] The division was restructured in 1982, with it being split into Grimes Galley Products, Grimes Lighting Products, and Grimes EL Products.^[15] The Grimes Galley unit closed two years later.^[16] Following a consolidation in 1991, the company reemerged as Grimes Aerospace.^[17] In 1992, construction began on a 20,000 square foot expansion of the Greenwood facility.^[18]

It was purchased by AlliedSignal in 1997.^[19] The sale would later be questioned after it was revealed that AlliedSignal pressured credit ratings companies to ignore the unrated bonds of Grimes investors.^[20] AlliedSignal, which would later become Honeywell, maintains as presence at two separate locations in Urbana.^[2]

• Navigation light
• Pilot-controlled lighting