As the United States of America celebrates its semi-quincentennial, we have an opportunity to reflect on our history as a company and draw some comparisons to the last significant milestone, the bi-centennial in 1976.
It just so happened that we recently came across one of our old V-Master Cranes for sale on Facebook Marketplace. This was the very first product that our company was founded on, so it’s always carried special meaning to us. It was clearly an oldie, but a goodie, so we bought it for the “ATI Museum”. Just kidding, we don’t have a museum (yet), but it looked like it was in good condition and potentially had some useful life remaining.
Once we had it in our factory, we learned some more. Our biggest curiosity was the age, luckily the data plate was still intact and so we were able to look up the serial number 23464. Turns out, this crane was manufactured back in 1976 during America’s bi-centennial celebration! It actually shipped from our factory on July 6, 1976, so it is literally a “bi-centennial crane”. Now 50 years later, it’s still functional and ready to work. That’s a great testament to the heavy-duty construction and robust design of our products.
In 1976, Air Technical Industries was only 12 years old, still a young and growing company with an expanding catalog of products, manufactured in a 15,000 sq-ft facility. The office was moved to an old school bus nicknamed, “Air Technical Academy” while building expansion was under construction. The current company President was not yet born. Customers were still asking for a lower and lower lowered height on lift tables because the Zero-Low Lift would not be invented by our founder for about 12 more years.
In 1976…
A loaf of bread cost $0.35…
A ribeye steak cost $3.10 per pound…
Regular unleaded gasoline cost $0.60 per gallon…
A brand-new Chevrolet Impala cost $4,700…
… and ATI’s V-Master Floor Crane cost $250!
Looking towards the future, we are excited for what the next 50 years may bring! We’ve been developing new products and technologies such as product automation and sophisticated product features like incorporating lithium batteries into our mobile cranes. And as always, we maintain the philosophy that we don’t spare weight for making a robust, long-lasting product.
Hope you enjoyed our little throwback. Wishing everyone a Happy Independence Day and a prosperous 2026! AMERICA 250!!
