The Pilot Radio Corp. was founded by Isidor Goldberg. He was born in Manhattan, New York, in 1893 and graduated from Hebrew Technical Institute in Mechanical Arts in 1908. From 1910-1914, Isidor Goldberg was a test pilot for Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Corporation and Curtiss Airways. Afterwards he sold aeronautical supplies and model airplanes. In 1915 Goldberg was granted a U.S. patent for his invention of an emergency lamp.
In 1919, Isidor Goldberg founded Pilot Electric Manufacturing Co. in Brooklyn, New York, to manufacture parts and kits for home radios. In 1930 a second plant was established in Lawrence, Massachusetts. The name of the company was later changed to Pilot Radio and Tube Corp. and, in 1932, to Pilot Radio Corp. By 1936 Pilot products were being sold in more than 90 countries. In the late 1940s and early 1950s plants were built in Britain (prior to World War II), South Africa (by 1953), and Israel (in 1947). All three plants were sold in 1959. Goldberg was president of the company from its inception until his death in 1961.
As president of Pilot Radio Corp., Isidor Goldberg was a leader in developing and introducing new products and new uses for communications equipment. The company was the first to introduce a civilian short wave radio (WASP, 1925) and a battery-powered, portable radio (1937). In 1930, he also developed long distance ground-to-air communications with his “flying laboratory”.
VR199001 Radio-Design-V3-N4-1931