Technology History | Garmin — ProNav Rooms in Lenexa Before the Olathe Campus
· 1989-10
Unreviewed contributionBy kevin · · Report an issue
Find memories left by people near you.
Distribute Bounty
This will distribute the bounty equally among all qualifying memories. This action cannot be undone.
Cancel Bounty
Are you sure you want to cancel this bounty? The remaining amount will be refunded to your account.
Success!
Operation completed successfully.
Error
Something went wrong.
Technology History | Garmin — ProNav Rooms in Lenexa Before the Olathe Campus
kevin
People treat Garmin as an Olathe campus that always made watches that talk to satellites.
The first company was two AlliedSignal engineers and a rented room in Lenexa.
In October 1989 Gary Burrell and Min H. Kao left King Radio, by then inside AlliedSignal, after the parent cut GPS research.
They first filed the name ProNav, then changed it to Garmin, a blend of Gary and Min, after a trademark fight.
Kao had come from Magnavox and from a University of Tennessee doctorate.
Burrell had run engineering at King.
Friends and family in Taiwan, plus their own savings, raised about $4 million in 1989 dollars.
They hired a dozen engineers and took space in Lenexa, Kansas.
In 1990 a first factory opened in New Taipei City with about a dozen people.
The first product, GPS 100, was a portable unit sold to boaters.
It drew about 5,000 orders at the 1990 International Marine Technology Exposition.
The U.S. Army became a customer in 1991.
GPS 155, certified for instrument flight, followed in 1994.
Operational headquarters moved to 1200 East 151st Street in Olathe in 1996.
The listing came in 2000.
The mechanism that survived is the one AlliedSignal declined to fund: put a consumer price on a military constellation and manufacture the box in Taiwan while the engineers stay in Kansas.
Photo: Garmin campus, Olathe, via Wikimedia Commons.
_thumbnail.jpg)
_thumbnail.jpg)
_thumbnail.jpg)
changes?
delete this memory?
We detected that you have a Blox in your crypto wallet! We will import the Blox into your account.
Click on done below to complete the import.
Welcome Back!
Sign in to preserve cherished moments
Don't have an account?
Welcome!!
Sign up and start preserving cherished moments
?
?
Choose your payment method
Buy with Metablox Credit
Do you want to mint Blox with Metablox Credit?
Which Crypto would you like to use?
Purchase Confirmed!
Your Blox is being minted on-chain and will appear in your profile shortly.
Log in or sign up to claim your Blox.
How many credits do you want to buy?
$100 USD = 1 Metablox Credit = 1 Blox.
Use Metablox Credit to mint any Blox you want on the map.
expand_more