Northwest Aerospace News August | September 2020 | Page 34

Lynnwood also is the largest single
location within the Aerospace &
Electronics division, with some 900
employees. The rest of the division’s
2,300 workers are at sites including
Burbank, California; Chandler, Arizona;
Elyria, Ohio; West Caldwell, New
Jersey; Fort Walton Beach, Florida;
Lyon, France and Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
Founders’ Vision
Crane was founded in 1855 as a brass
and bell foundry and while it’s no longer
a family-owned company, executives
still follow the founders’ guiding
principles, said Hilary King, the vice
president and general manager for the
Sensing and Power Systems unit.
Founder R.T. Crane in the 19th century said he was resolved to conduct his
business in the strictest honesty and fairness. He committed to dealing fairly and
justly with customers, competitors and employees. King said, “that foundation
statement is pervasive throughout our culture” – and it’s a big part of what lured
her to work at Crane in 2018 after a career spent at larger manufacturers including
Honeywell and GE Aviation.
Now in the 21st century, “Our CEO commends people for ‘Being Crane,’” she
said.
The company stresses “impeccable customer service” and delivering high quality,
Mundinger said.
His unit has never had a space product fail during a mission, he said, even on
power converters it has built for probes like New Horizons. The probe flew
past Pluto in 2015, executed a flyby of a body in the Kuiper Belt on the Solar
System’s edge in 2019 and is currently heading away from the Sun at 52,000
mph, looking for more objects to observe on its way to deep space. The probe,
launched in 2006, has enough power to remain operational into the 2030s, according
to NASA.
34 NORTHWEST AEROSPACE NEWS