the vice president and general manager of the Electronics Engineering Division. During this period, he led the development of a new type of two-degree-of-freedom, low-drift gyroscope with associated digital electronics. This formed the heart of the Litton LN-3 Inertial Navigation System, which was the first such guidance system for fighter aircraft. Genesis of the Litton Inertial Navigation System With Singleton serving as the chief salesman, the first adoption of the LN-3 was by the West German Air Force in 1959. When Singleton was named to the National Academy of Engineering in 1979, the development of this gyroscope was cited as an example of his inventive genius. Teledyne years In June 1960, Singleton and George M. Kozmetsky, a colleague from Litton, formed Instrument Systems, located in Beverly Hills, California. Arthur Rock, one of America's first and most successful venture capitalists, financed the startup with a $450,000 investment and remained a board director for 33 years. With a Doctor of Commercial Science degree from Harvard and ten years experience in industry, Kozmetsky complemented Singleton for developing a successful enterprise. Singleton served as chairman and president, and Kozmetsky was the secretary and executive vice president. Their plan was to build a major firm primarily through acquiring companies. In October, they acquired the majority of stock in Amelco, a small electronics manufacturing plant, and within a short time bought rights to the name Teledyne and its associated logo. Formation and early growth Singleton's initial vision for Teledyne was that it would combine semiconductor device fabrication and control system development. Among the personnel from Amelco was Jay T. Last, who had earlier worked for William B. Shockley, co-inventor of the transistor. Immediately before Amelco, Last had been a principal at Fairchild Semiconductor, and used this experience to propel Teledyne into the integrated circuit business. Called Electron Devices, this manufacturing operation was formed as a subsidiary of Amelco. With its main facility in Mountain View, California, it was one of the pioneers in what is now commonly called the Silicon Valley. In addition to Amelco, Singleton acquired two other electronics manufacturing firms, and by the end of 1960, Teledyne had approximately 400 employees and of floor space devoted to engineering development and manufacturing. Teledyne stock was first offered to the public in May 1961. During its first full fiscal year of operations, which ended in October 1961, Teledyne had sales of $4,491,000 with a net income