The Patten Company - History: Origins

The original LR-1 one-man life raft

This patent covers the first inflatable keel and a ballast system awarded to F. F. Patten in 1945. This raft was designed so that the downed air crewmen could sail out of harm's way.

The original 7 man raft, 1942 (Fred Patten is on the left)

20-man rafts ready for assembly (circa 1950's)

Nine-man team from 3rd Platoon Charlie Company 3rd Recon Bn, aboard a Patten RB-15.

In the late 50's the special forces adopted our design for rough water transit as pictured above. We designed the RB-12 & RB-15 with two thicknesses of 2-1/2" dropped stitched inflatable floors. The RB-15 had the option of a roll-up sectioned rigid floor that was an integral part of the boat and did not have to be deassembled except for two stiffing stringers. To the best of our knowledge, we were the first to incorporate this feature.

25-person Elliot Raft. We manufactured thousands from the 1960's to the 1980's

In 1934, a Navy plane crashed into the ocean while performing military maneuvers. The Pilot apparently died because, he was unable to survive the elements of the sea long enough for the rescue ship to reach him. He had no life raft equipment. Several years later, in 1939, Fred F. Patten, brother of the lost airman, pioneered the development of the inflatable life raft to save lives where his brother's had been lost.

Soon after Pearl Harbor and our declaration of war with Germany and Japan, the Navy, Bureau of Aeronautics, and the Army Air Force adopted Patten's prototypes.

Patten had then joined the United States Rubber Company as Product Development Manager to produce the rafts. During this period, he was also the initial project engineer for the development of the inflatable decoy deception force that confused the Germans, before and during the D-Day invasion. Products ranged from full-scale landing craft, troop carriers, tanks as well as B-26 bombers. Subsequently, the Navy commissioned Patten as an officer, responsible for engineering and development of inflatable life saving equipment for the Bureau of Aeronautics.

Following the war, Fred Patten founded the Patten Co., Inc. in Worcester, Mass., manufacturing inflatables for military aircraft and soon became the major supplier of these products to the Government. In 1955, the Patten Company relocated to Lake Worth, Florida. The life rafts ranged in size from 1 man through 20-man.

In 1966 son Robert Patten joined the company and in 1968 son Stephen also signed up to carry on the family business.

The company has done extensive development work on life rafts with NASA and has supplied the astronauts with life rafts since the first Apollo missions. Our specially designed rafts were deployed around the world for the Skylab program. All Astronauts carry our life rafts on each Space Shuttle mission.

Starting in the middle 1960's the Patten Company produced Coast Guard approved life rafts for the C. J. Hendry Company. The rafts were manufactured under the name of Elliot. The sizes ranged from 6 persons to 25 persons. The company made 1000's of rafts until RFD-Elliot took over the production responsibilities.

In 1973 Fred Patten semi-retired after selling the company to American Safety Equipment Corp. They subsequently discontinued the life raft business. In 1974 Fred Patten's sons and former Patten Co. executives reestablished the company. RFD GROUP LTD., the leading manufacturer and designer of inflatable life saving equipment in England, purchased controlling interest of the company in 1978. F. F. Patten's return to active participation as Chairman of the Board and CEO was part of the transaction as well as the use of the name "Patten". The new name became RFD-Patten, Inc.

In late 1986, another British company under a leveraged buy-out on the London Stock Exchange purchased the RFD GROUP. In January 1987 Fred Patten bought back the stock owned by the British company, resumed the name Patten Co., Inc. and continued operations.

The manufacturing area is over 60,000 square feet on four acres and the primary offices and production facility have been at the same location since 1955.

The Patten Company has never been without a Government contract for inflatable life rafts during its active period from 1947 to the present.

Patten is the country's leading manufacturer of inflatable life saving equipment for military aircraft for the Department of Defense. 70% of the company's contracts are in this area.

Our state of the art research and development along with three generations of experience make The Patten company the mainstay of the industry.