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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:
Mr. Mark Richardson

George T. Baltus, of Tonawanda, N.Y., led a distinguished career in aviation components manufacturing that still impacts many in the industry today. A graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic in 1940, George found work as a mechanical engineer with Curtis Wright in Buffalo NY. These were exciting times, and George often recalled the aerobatics flown by young ferry pilots taking off from CW's parking lot runway at the Kenmore Ave. plant as aircraft were moved to Buffalo Airport for final installations prior to delivery. At this time George was a liaison engineer for the P-40 fighter.
George first began to work with servosystem technology at Bell Aerosystems in Niagara Falls. A key component of early (as well as late) servosystems was a device called the electrohydrualic servovalve, which was pioneered by Bell Telephone Laboratories during the war. George became well known later in life for his development and advocacy of servo valves and servosystems.
Servosystems allow low power signals from computers or other control devices to be precisely translated into hydraulic energy, which, teamed with actuators, effect movement of control surfaces of missiles and aircraft as well as other engineered applications.
Although development was slowed by the vacuum tube technology that limited the control end of the system, by the early 1950s the significance of servovalve technology was increasingly recognized by the engineering community. With the advent of high-speed missiles and jet aircraft, speeds were such that control forces would be unsuitably high without hydraulic boost. Servovalves were ideally suited to deliver this boost in a predictable way at the direction of an electrical signal.
When Bell acquired Hydraulic Research and Manufacturing in 1954, George was appointed Sales and Design Engineer for the Eastern US by HRM Textron (now HRT). This effort was administered from the Bell plant in Niagara Falls until 1967, when the entity known as the Eastern Engineering Operations of HRM Textron relocated to Depew, NY.
By 1974, this operation had expanded to include engineering, assembly & test, light manufacturing, R&D, and support roles. The increased scope of the east coast operation, as well as George's persistence, led to five east coast employees buying these operations in this same year.
This new venture was named Hydraulic Servocontrols Corporation (later to be known as HSC Controls Inc., so the administrative assistants wouldn't have to type so much!). George Baltus was named as President,
with long time business associate and former Moog Engineering VP Harv Kolm as Vice President.
Although relatively small in size and scope, HSC advanced from sales of just over $600,000 in 1975 to $2.4 million in 1981. In 1989 sales exceeded $10 million. In 1984 a significant interest was sold to Barmag AG of Germany, yet George continued in a primary leadership role. During this decade HSC flourished, nearly doubling sales revenue twice, in 1982 and 1983.
In 1988, the small yet still growing HSC was honored by appointment to the Top 100 Private Firms in Western New York. In this year, although George "officially" retired, he remained on HSC staff to ensure continued smooth operations.
George was still among the HSC staff when HSC was purchased in 1994 by Woodward Governor Co., a long time industry stalwart. This organization (known since 1996 as Woodward-HSC Inc.) continues to serve markets in the aerospace, biomedical, and industrial sectors.
As a current (2002) member of the Woodward-HSC community, I remember George fondly as a paternalistic, caring person who found value in mentoring young people who chose to become part of our industry.