government to draw plans and develop standard raw material sizes for building M1911A1 pistols. The following April 17, Singer was given an educational order of 500 units with serial numbers S800001 – S800500. The educational order was a program set up by the Ordnance Board in the U.S. to teach companies without gun-making experience to manufacture weapons. Singer delivered 500 units to the U.S. government. Although Singer was unable to produce 100 guns a day, which the government contract required, the War Department was impressed with the quality of their pistols and asked the company to produce navigation and targeting equipment components. The pistol tooling and manufacturing machines were transferred to Remington Rand whilst some went to the Ithaca Gun Company. Approximately 1.75 million 1911A1 pistols were produced during World War II, making original Singer pistols relatively rare and collectable. In 2017, one sold at auction for $414,000. In December 1940, Singer won a contract to produce the M5 Antiaircraft Director, a version of the UK-designed Kerrison Predictor. The US Army had previously adopted the M7 Computing Sight for their 37 mm gun M1 anti-aircraft guns, but the gun proved temperamental and Sperry Corporation was too busy producing other systems to build the required number of M7's. After testing in September 1940, the Army accepted the Kerrison as the M5, and later, the Bofors 40 mm gun in place of the M1. Post-war Singer resumed developing sewing machines in 1946. After the not so well received Singer 206k, a first attempt in zig-zag machines, starting production in 1936, They introduced one of their most popular, highest-quality and fully-optioned machines in 1957, the 401 Slant-o-Matic. 2011 marked their 160th anniversary. Currently, they manufacture computerized, heavy duty, embroidery, quilting, serging, and mechanical sewing machines. In 2017, they launched their new Singer Sewing Assistant App. Diversification In the 1960s, the company diversified, acquiring the Friden calculator company in 1965 and General Precision Equipment Corporation in 1968. Friden became Singer Business Machines which produced the Singer System 10. GPE included Librascope, The Kearfott Company, Inc, and Link Flight Simulation. In 1968 also, Singer bought out GPS Systems and added it to the Link Simulations Systems Division (LSSD). This unit produced nuclear power plant control room simulators in Silver Spring, Maryland: Tech Road building for Boiling Water Reactor (BWR), Parkway building for Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) and later moved to Broken Land Parkway in Columbia,