Luscombe Engineering Company was founded in 1954 by Jim Luscombe, the son of the aircraft pioneer, Don Luscombe. Jim was a graduate of Caltech in Pasadena, California, After a brief stint with Beckman Instruments, he started a manufacturer’s representative company in Pasadena. One year later, he saw the need to cover the Northern California market, and opened the Northern California office.
The original office was in downtown San Francisco, the business center of the Bay Area in those days! As our industry expanded into what is now known as Silicon Valley, we moved South as well. We opened our office in Los Gatos 1972 in anticipation of the growth. We moved in 2002 to San Jose, just four minutes from the airport to be even closer to the center of the action. Now the office is in Livermore, which is more central for our employees given the crazy Bay Area traffic.
We became independent of the other Luscombe companies in 1972 when John Latimer bought Luscombe Engineering here in Northern California and Northern Nevada.
Over the years, the Luscombe Engineering companies expanded to cover the eleven Western states. Today, we cover the same territory, but the original company has divided into five, separately owned, Luscombe companies.