Ensign Bickford Aerospace and Defense Simsbury, Connecticut

Ensign Bickford Aerospace and Defense develops directed energy explosives for weapons and rockets, and has been based here in Simsbury since 1837. It started in the 1830s, when William Bickford invented the safety fuse. In the 1930s, the company developed Primacord, and advanced detonator and shaped charge technology, used in atomic bombs, missiles, and rockets. In 1987, the Space Ordnance Division became the separate Ensign Bickford Aerospace Company. It has grown further with acquisitions, and has plants in Graham, Kentucky; and Moorpark, California. It shares some of its site in Simsbury with the explosives company DynoNobel.

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