From our years of building high current DC power supplies for demonstrating mobile electronics and our continuous involvement in general aviation since 1980, comes our line of Ground Power Units to safely power cockpit and airframe systems with clean, stable airframe power. We also distribute the aviation-specific BatteryMINDer® and provide wiring kits for FAA-certified aircraft to simplify installation and increase safety.
Tell me more about your company
White Lightning is made by Audio Authority Corporation. Audio Authority is a small, creative manufacturer that looks for niche opportunities in the electronics field. Our philosophy is to do everything ourselves when possible. We also have our own engineering, sales, support, and shipping departments, all under one roof in Lexington, KY. That benefits our customers, because we can more easily and quickly coordinate to solve problems and keep eachother up to date. We like to keep the work here in the USA as much as possible.
Audio Authority started out in 1976, filling a need for specialized audio equipment in the retail hi-fi environment. Jon Sisk opened his own boutique stereo shop in Lexington, Kentucky and quickly saw the need for a device to compare different speakers for customers. This device not only needed to switch between two products, but also needed to compensate for the speaker’s efficiency, so that the customer could evaluate them at equal volume. Contacting a friend, Jon Gertz, to see if this device could be made, the two soon found themselves manufacturing these “comparators” for other retailers across the nation. Jon Gertz stayed on as the chief engineer until he retired in 2015.
How did you get started in aviation?
Back in the 80s when car audio was big, we produced DC power supplies for use in retail electronics stores. Jon Sisk, a pilot for many years, realized that the same technology we used to produce these 12 volt power supplies would be ideal for powering the company’s Malibu Mirage. Audio Authority engineers designed the Model 2860 and it was an instant hit. Since then, we have produced many Enhanced flight GPUs and now the White Lightning line represents the latest compact, affordable, reliable airframe power supply made in the USA.
