The Penny & Giles product range comprises a broad selection of joysticks, sensors and solenoids for use on commercial vehicles and industrial equipment. The products are the legacy of the Penny & Giles company founded in 1956 and acquired by Curtiss-Wright in 2002. History Penny & Giles was founded in 1956 out of a partnership between Professor William Penny and Mr James Giles, when they identified a demand for instrumentation in the aviation industry for high-precision, high-reliability wire-wound potentiometric devices for customers engaged in aircraft flight testing. Developments in 1957 led to the first aircraft accident data recorder based on magnetic recording of data on stainless steel wire (popularly known as the 'Black Box'). During 1963, the UK Ministry of Aviation gave notice of a mandatory requirement for passenger carrying civil aircraft to be equipped with accident data recording systems, and Penny & Giles were well placed to supply sensors and recorders for these systems.