Business Phone

Eagle Telephonics introduced the Eagle One in 1984. Although we designed this phone approximately 25 years ago, it has withstood the test of time. The Eagle One was a business phone with many advanced features for its time. It  included a separate programmable module shown to the right, a non-mechanical electronic  hook switch and easy installation with conventional RJ45 jacks.

A significant portion of Eagle’s marketing strategy was patriotism and the fact that it was made in America. A matter of fact, it was selected as the official phone of the White House when it was introduced.

Since the Eagle One was manufactured in the US, minimizing assembly time, hardware   and  cost were major design considerations. In addition to its restrained classic style, the Eagle One was truly designed for manufacturing. It was the first phone which could be completely assembled without any screws.

Every component in was designed to snap into the plastic housing which also snapped together. The phone was prototyped and tested to withstand a drop onto a hard floor without breaking apart.

An interesting fact to point out is that this design was developed well before CAD. All the snap fits and interlocking features were designed with injection mold tool design considerations, thus minimizing mold complexity.

Based on the ingenious design of this phone, assembly time was limited to less than two minutes.

After the specifications for the phone were documented, we proceeded to sketch our ideas and render them for presentation to Eagle management. Since detailing of buttons was time consuming, the initial concept renderings only illustrated the overall product form.

Product details were developed with sketches as shown in this illustration.

The final design was illustrated to a much higher level of detail which clearly represented the proposed design.

A non-functional model was fabricated based on the drawings and renderings to provide Eagle with a physical representation of their new product. It enabled everyone to evaluate the appearance and human factors associated with orientation, button placement, size and receiver cradle design.

Hundreds of painstaking man-hours were invested at a drafting table to  transform the accepted concept into an actual product. Every dimension was manually calculated with complex trigonometric equations until the design was completed. Multi-sheet production drawings were eventually released to a mold maker in Portugal.

A visit to the mold maker permitted us to review tooling progress, verify quality and discuss any questions that may have arisen.

These pictures of the Eagle One are a testament to the quality and attention to detail applied to this phone which was well ahead of its time.

Unlike all other phones at that time, which simply registered the hand set in two recessed pockets in the main body, the Eagle One hand set was visually integrated with the main body. Two sculpted forms emerging from the phone base provided an distinctively elegant receptacle for the handset.

Our suggestion of an electronic hook switch was novel and the first of its kind. It eliminated the spring loaded plastic flipper which was typical at that time.
Colors, graphics, form and proportion contributed to the success and timeless beauty of this phone.