The Story Behind The Name

Back in the very early 1980s, when forming a company of my own was still a thought that I had, the issue of what to name it was one of the biggest hurdles! So many were already taken.

I had previously worked on several space projects, including the group that designed the signal conditioning for NASA's Space Shuttle. And it was just completing atmospheric testing. 

The launch was scheduled. 

On the day of the launch, I decided to go home for lunch to watch it on TV with my family.  As the shuttle lifted off the pad and quickly gained altitude and velocity, there was the announcement from mission control:  Max Q.  This is the point of maximum dynamic pressure and maximum stress on the vehcile. The throttle for the main engines are reduced as the vehicle travels through this period of maximum stress. After Max Q is complete, the main engines are throttled up again. 

It occurred to me that the phrase Max Q - of maximum pressure - was what we had been desigining for in so many of the projects I had worked on in this field. And it was what I wanted to focus on with the new company.

Max Q also has significant meaning in several other areas of science and engineering that appealed to me. And I thought that our potential clients could identify with the term and remember it.  

When I returned to work after the launch, I called the lawyers and submitted the name Max Q Systems, Inc.

The rest, as they say, is history.