In 1942 Roy Bell, Sr. founded Bell-Memphis, Incorporated (originally R. E. Bell Manufacturing). Bell-Memphis grew from a small wartime contract manufacturing shop to become a long-term supplier of aircraft control cable fittings based on the “clip-locking turnbuckle” patent that Bell-Memphis helped develop and later owned. The clip-locking turnbuckle became the aircraft industry standard and is still used today on most all aircraft from small private planes to the largest jet airliners.

Bell-Memphis continues to be a key supplier to the aircraft control cable fittings industry. Bell-Memphis is on a government QPL (Qualified Products List) to produce MS (Military Standard) control cable parts whose drawings are controlled by the US Military. The standard products consist of swaged wire rope fittings such as ball ends, eyes, and forks. The turnbuckle parts, which are used for adjusting control cable tension, consist of barrels, forks, eyes, swaged terminals, and the locking clip. Bell-Memphis’ aircraft fittings manufacturing operation consist of machining metal bar stock on screw machines, followed by various secondary operations.