Eagle Arms

Eagle Arms

by

1986
Coal Valley Illinois

  • 1986 Karl Lewis and Jim Glazier formed Eagle Arms in Coal Valley Illinois
    – early Stoner patents had expired
    – marketed M16 and AR-15 type rifle parts
    –  took the retail business from Lewis’ company, Lewis Machine and Tool (LMT)
  • 1989 produced complete rifles
    –  LMT supplied parts
  • January 1994 Mark Westrom purchased Eagle Arms
  • November 1994 produced a .308 caliber AR-10 type rifle called the “M-10”
  • 1995 Westrom purchased the rights to the ArmaLite trademark
  • 1995 Eagle was reincorporated as ArmaLite
    – Eagle Arms reduced to a division of ArmaLite

Eagle Arms

About Eagle Arms

Eagle Arms was an Illinois maker of AR-15 type parts and rifles. It began after the early Stoner patents had expired and grew out of the retail side of Lewis Machine and Tool. The company matters to gun owners mostly because of what it became. Mark Westrom, a former U.S. Army ordnance officer, bought Eagle Arms and used it to bring back the ArmaLite name. ArmaLite was the company where Eugene Stoner designed the AR-10 and AR-15 in the 1950s. It had stopped operating by the 1970s and was sold to Elisco of the Philippines in 1983.

Westrom got the ArmaLite name and logo in the mid-1990s and relaunched the business as ArmaLite, Inc., based in Geneseo, Illinois, with Eagle Arms becoming a division. Under Westrom, ArmaLite made the AR-10B and M-15 lines, which brought the original .308 AR-10 idea back to civilian buyers. Westrom sold ArmaLite to Strategic Armory Corps in 2013. Headquarters moved to Phoenix in 2018 and to the Bryan/College Station, Texas area by mid-2023.

Key Facts

  • October 1, 1954: ArmaLite incorporated as a division of Fairchild
  • 1983: Dormant ArmaLite name sold to Elisco of the Philippines
  • 1995 to 1996: Westrom’s company acquired the ArmaLite name and logo (sources differ on the exact year)
  • 2013: ArmaLite sold to Strategic Armory Corps
  • 2018: ArmaLite headquarters moved to Phoenix, Arizona

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Sources

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