THE EXPLORERS CLUB TO CELEBRATE 350 YEARS OF THE ROYAL OBSERVATORY GREENWICH
For Immediate Release
October 2, 2025 -- New York, NY American Industrial Acquisition Corporation Chairman and Explorers Club Trustee L. M. Levie shall join in a program, reception and dinner at The Explorers Club in New York City on Tuesday, October 21, 2025, celebrating the 350th anniversary of the founding of the Royal Observatory Greenwich and its extraordinary legacy of innovation in navigation, astronomy, and timekeeping.
Presented in partnership with Royal Museums Greenwich, this special evening will explore the Observatory's pivotal role in shaping global navigation and its enduring impact on science, exploration, and international standards of measurement.
In July 1675, Charles II, King of England, made a decision that changed the world forever. Global trade and navigation were increasingly important to the wealth of empires and provisions of everyday life. Yet navigation at sea was a dangerous, unsure feat, often resulting in loss of goods, vessels, and life. Thus, Royal Observatory, Greenwich was founded "so as to find out the so much desired Longitude of Places for perfecting the art of Navigation."
Alongside the founding of the Royal Observatory, an Astronomer Royal was appointed to chart the stars to provide safer navigation. John Flamsteed spent 30 years mapping the celestial sphere, setting the precedent for his many successors. The evening program will examine the Observatory's crucial role in the 1714 Act of Longitude, John Harrison's groundbreaking quest to solve the problem of Longitude, the development of the Nautical Almanac, and the international impact of the Royal Observatory through the designation of the Prime Meridian, 0° Longitude and Greenwich Mean Time.
L. M. Levie, Chairman of AIAC, Member of the Board of Trustees and Legacy Society, and Poet Laureate of The Explorers Club, and donor to the Royal Observatory Greenwich, remarked, “As a youth, I was captivated by the mysteries of the cosmos—the infinite expanse of stars, the elegant mathematics of celestial mechanics, and humanity's eternal quest to comprehend our place in the universe.”
He continued, “In 2024, after I joined the AIAC team at the Farnborough Air Show, I had the extraordinary privilege of a private tour and lunch at the Royal Observatory Greenwich. Standing at the Prime Meridian, where East meets West, walking through the halls where Flamsteed, Halley, and Airy revolutionized our understanding of the heavens, I felt the weight of three and a half centuries of scientific discovery. The Observatory is not merely a monument to astronomical achievement—it is a testament to human ingenuity, perseverance, and our boundless capacity for exploration. It represents the marriage of practical necessity and pure intellectual curiosity that has propelled civilization forward. To celebrate its 350th anniversary at The Explorers Club, among fellow seekers of knowledge and truth, is an honor beyond measure."
Mr. Levie composed the following poetic tribute for this milestone anniversary, which shall be recited at the celebration.
AIAC and its affiliates, Bradford Space, SuperAlloy Manufacturing Solutions, Champlain Cable, and Canadian Kraft Paper Industries are Partners of the Explorers Club. AIAC and the AIAC Foundation are leading an effort to reactivate and revive the Arecibo Observatory in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, which for decades served as the world’s largest observatory. The Arecibo Observatory is located 15 miles from Avara Arecibo, a unit of Avara Pharma Services Ltd., a pharmaceutical manufacturing affiliate of AIAC.
For further information, please see:
https://www.rmg.co.uk/royal-observatory
About the Royal Observatory Greenwich
Founded in 1675 by King Charles II, the Royal Observatory Greenwich stands as one of the most important scientific sites in history. For 350 years, it has been at the forefront of astronomical research, navigation, and timekeeping. The Observatory is home to the Prime Meridian of the World, 0° Longitude, which divides the eastern and western hemispheres of the Earth. It is also the reference point for Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), which became the basis for the world's time zones.
The Observatory's Astronomers Royal, including John Flamsteed, Edmond Halley, Nevil Maskelyne, and George Biddell Airy, made groundbreaking contributions to astronomy and navigation that enabled safer sea travel and expanded humanity's understanding of the cosmos. Today, the Royal Observatory is part of Royal Museums Greenwich and continues to inspire visitors from around the world with its rich history of scientific achievement.
For further information, please see:
https://www.rmg.co.uk/royal-observatory
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Observatory,_Greenwich
https://londonmymind.com/visit-the-royal-observatory-greenwich/
About The Explorers Club
Founded in 1904, The Explorers Club is a prestigious international multidisciplinary professional society dedicated to the advancement of field research and the ideal that it is vital to preserve the instinct to explore. Based at its historic headquarters in New York City, the Club has served as a meeting point and unifying force for explorers and scientists worldwide for over a century.
The Club's membership includes many of history's most renowned explorers and scientists, from polar explorers Robert Peary and Roald Amundsen to oceanic pioneers Jacques Cousteau and Robert Ballard, from aviation legends Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart to space pioneers like Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Jim Lovell himself. The Club continues to support cutting-edge exploration in every realm—from the deepest ocean trenches to the highest peaks, from archaeological discoveries to space missions.
The Explorers Club is renowned for its rigorous standards of membership, requiring nominees to have made significant contributions to exploration or the sciences that advance our understanding of the world. The Club's Board of Trustees, Legacy Society, and various committees work to preserve the Club's mission while fostering new generations of explorers through grants, expeditions, and educational programs.
The Club's famous annual dinner, featuring exotic cuisine and presentations by leading explorers, has become legendary in New York society. More importantly, The Explorers Club continues to fund and support expeditions that push the boundaries of human knowledge, from climate research in Antarctica to biodiversity studies in remote rainforests to preparations for future Mars missions.
AIAC Chairman L. M. Levie serves as Member of its Board of Trustees and as Poet Laureate and Member of its Legacy Society. As Poet Laureate, Mr. Levie contributes to the Club's cultural mission by capturing the spirit of exploration through verse, honoring both historical achievements and contemporary discoveries that continue to expand the frontiers of human knowledge and experience.
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About American Industrial Acquisition Corporation
American Industrial Acquisition Corporation (AIAC) is a diversified industrial group with manufacturing and distribution sites in 24 countries in North America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia-New Zealand. AIAC has acquired and grown non-core subsidiaries and divisions of Boeing, Siemens, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Johnson Controls, Merck, Pfizer, Astellas, Visteon, Carlyle, Ahlstrom, Tolko, Groupe Suez, Groupe Rexel, and many other leading multinational corporations.
AIAC companies serve companies and governmental entities worldwide in all major sectors, including aviation, space, defense, automotive, truck, rail, marine, petrochemical, solar, nuclear, food, confectionary, beverage, civil engineering and infrastructure, commercial construction, mining, dredging, disaster relief, education, medical devices, and pharmaceuticals. In addition, AIAC companies are exclusive, authorized distributors of leading branded industrial and consumer products and serve as critical suppliers for the construction of major airports, schools, hospitals, performing arts and sports centers, offices and hotels throughout Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. AIAC is a leading manufacturer of building, street, and highway signage in Europe, signage and illumination structures in North America, and a distributor of electrical products throughout France.
Of note, AIAC purchased Boeing Canada in 2005 and has produced over 10,000 unique components for every Boeing jet plane ever since, reliably serving Boeing from manufacturing facilities in North America. A leader in ultra-high precision jet engine component manufacturing, AIAC companies produce 2,200 fan blades for each jet engine produced by GE, Pratt & Whitney, Rolls Royce, and Honeywell.
AIAC companies actively support exploration into outer space, manufacturing critical components for launching and propelling spacecraft and satellites. AIAC customers in this sector include NASA, the European Space Agency, SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Boeing. research. AIAC affiliate, Champlain Cable Corporation, supported the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo space missions with high performance wire and cable. AIAC companies also lead in the design and manufacture of undersea umbilical cables for worldwide oceanographic research.
AIAC companies produce the critical automotive wire and cable for Tesla, GM, Ford, Chrysler-Fiat, Toyota, and Nissan. In connection with its kraft paper manufacturing interests in Canada and the US, AIAC controls and sustainably manages 22 million acres of Manitoba, Canada forestland, an area equivalent in size to the nation of Hungary.
AIAC affiliate, Metallwarenfabrik Gemmingen GmbH, located in Germany, designs, manufactures and distributes high performance, emergency portable power generators utilized in global conflict zones and during natural disasters.
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About AIAC Philanthropy
AIAC and the AIAC Foundation support a wide range of nonprofit, nonsectarian, bipartisan organizations which promote international conflict resolution, disaster relief, economic development, environmental sustainability, exploration, and the performing arts.
The exploration-focused nonprofit organizations which they actively support include the Explorers Club, the National Geographic Society, the Royal Geographical Society, The Royal Observatory Greenwich, the American Museum of Natural History and the Hayden Planetarium, the Victoria & Albert Museum, the National Air and Space Museum, the National Space Society, and the United States Space Foundation.
AIAC's other beneficiaries include the Appeal of the Nobel Peace Laureates Foundation Inc., the Asia Society, the Atlantic Council, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation - Gates Philanthropy Partners, the Bretton Woods Committee, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Carter Center, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Foreign Policy Association, the Institut Française des Relations Internationales, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the International Crisis Group, the International Rescue Committee, the Japan Society, the JFK School of Government of Harvard University, the Peterson Institute for International Economics, the Richardson Center for Global Engagement, the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), the Sierra Club, the Trilateral Commission, and the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute.
For further information, please see:
https://www.aiac.com/our-values
Media Contact:
Isabel Carro-Toro, Vice President
American Industrial Acquisition Corporation
+34 689 295 827 (Spain)
+1 787 244 3175 (USA)
icarro-toro@aiac.com