The Company
Mission Instruments Company was founded in 1988 in response to a growing demand for specialized equipment and instrumentation for lightning and atmospheric physics research, as well as thunderstorm warning devices for real world applications and problems facing industrial, government and military organizations.

The Founder
The founder, Ronald C. Binford, serves as chief engineer and owner of the company, bringing over thirty years of experience in the electronics field to the company. He has worked mostly in scientific instrumentation design and construction, as well as data collection, reduction, and archiving at such facilities as New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Lockheed (Martin) Engineering and Sciences at the White Sands Test Facility of the Johnson Space Center, and Lightning Location and Protection, Inc. (now a part of Vaisala Global Atmospherics). Mr. Binford was instrumental in the initial design and development of LLP's well-known Lightning Location system, used around the world. He has specialized in solving field reliability problems for many types of electronic, electrical, and mechanical systems, and has extensive experience in combining various technologies to produce optimum results.

The Products
Mission's main thrust has been to develop high-reliability electrostatic fluxmeter(s), commonly known as field mills. A field mill is a motorized device which measures the strength of electrostatic fields, such as those produced by high voltages in a laboratory, or in nature by the accumulation of electric charges in thunderclouds. When installed outdoors, a field mill can warn when sufficient electric charge has accumulated in an overhead cloud to create a lightning hazard, even before the first lightning occurs.
To complement the Field Mill, Mission Instruments produces a simple yet thorough monitoring device, the ALB 101, which adds a convenient display, along with flexible threshold alarming capabilities that warn of dangerously high electric fields.
Mission Instruments has produced both standard and custom solutions for a broad and diverse customer base, including lightning threat warning systems, research tools, even custom-designed sounding rockets used for atmospheric research by the U.S. Air Force and would be happy to discuss your unique needs.