Calspan is a technology company with a strong heritage in aerospace and transportation research and development. It was originally founded in 1940 as the Research Laboratory of the Curtiss Wright Aircraft Company in Buffalo, N.Y. After the Curtiss Wright factory in Buffalo was closed following World War 2, it then operated as the Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory, a not-for-profit research facility affiliated with Cornell University. In 1972 Cornell re-organized the Laboratory as the for-profit Calspan Corporation. Over the next 33 years the company had a series of outside corporate owners including Arvin Industries, Space Industries, Veridian Corporation, and General Dynamics. In 2005 the aerospace and transportation businesses were divested from General Dynamics and acquired by an independent ownership group from Western New York. The ownership team restored the Calspan name with a renewed focus on transportation and aerospace testing and technical services related to safety.

Calspan has achieved many technology firsts in its areas of expertise. For example, Calspan engineers developed the first crash test dummy in 1948, the automobile seatbelt in 1951, the first mobile unit with a Doppler weather radar in 1956, the first captive trajectory simulation system for wind tunnel testing of store separations in 1958, the first airborne simulation of another aircraft (the X-15) in 1960, the first flight demonstration of automatic terrain following radar in 1964, a prototype fingerprint reading system in 1969, the first digital model-following variable feel control system for the VISTA F-16 in 1993, the first airborne simulation-based loss of control training program for airline pilots in 1999, the first authentic side-pole crash test system in 2006, and the first commercial air service using F-16s in 2009.