The company was sold after Ed's death and was renamed.  However, this new company had financial problems and was eventually shut down by the IRS.  For the mere sum of $300, this company's assets and rights were purchased, at auction, by Howard Anthony in 1934.  Howard was a Michigan native with interests in electronics and aviation, and as later demonstrated, had a keen aptitude toward running a business and dealing with people.  Howard Anthony and his wife Helen renamed the company to Heath Aircraft Company and moved it's operation to Benton Harbor, Michigan.  The "new" company prospered and became well respected in the aircraft parts business.   

The Heath Company then started making communication radios for aircraft use, and other accessories, such as a simple pilot intercom system and tail wheels.  Many other items followed, and the WWII years were good to the company as it kept busy making military items for the war effort.  However, when the war ended, business declined and Ed started to by up huge inventories of military surplus electronic components.  Needing to do something with his newly acquired items, Ed turned to a monthly catalog advertising these parts.  Going one step further, Ed started putting together an oscilloscope kit, model O-1, that used many of the surplus parts, like the 5BP1 cathode ray tube.  Thus was born the first real Heathkit that many of us have become familiar with.  Other test equipment followed as well as high fidelity audio equipment and amateur radios.  One thing that kit buyers particularly liked was the quality of the kit construction manuals, which have now become synonymous with the Heathkit name. 

Tragedy struck again in 1954 when Howard Anthony was killed in an airplane crash while flying as a passenger aboard a corporate airplane he was thinking about buying.  The business was sold in 1955 by Howard's wife, Helen, to Daystrom, Inc. which continued to expand the company.  Later owners of the company were Schlumberger and Zenith.   

 It was the entry and success of  Heath in the amateur radio market that made the Heath Company very successful. After the onslaught of already-built off-shore equipment, the Heath Company's amateur business dried up and is no longer a portion of what is left of the Heath Company today. The heyday for Heath was from the late 50's to the early 80's. At that time, more hams used Heath equipment than any other brand and, needless to say, since it was mostly self-constructed, Heath was instrumental in planting the technology interest seed in many future engineers and technicians.

The AT-1 transmitter of the early 50's was the first Heathkit amateur transmitter. (I had one back then, although I didn't build it). It was followed by the hugely successful DX-100 transmitter, all 100 pounds of it!  It was a plate-modulated AM/CW rig that used a pair of 6146 tube finals. Heath expanded the DX series in the late 50's with the DX-20 CW transmitter, the DX-35 CW and screen-modulated phone transmitter, and some others. (The DX-35 was the first Heathkit I built. It worked the first time I plugged it in - lucky me). Heath had many other successful amateur rigs and equipment in the late 50's and early 60's. Then, in the mid 60's, Heath came out with the SB-100, the first in a line of very successful multiband, high-performance transceivers.