Story ID: 018a
Aircraft Specialties Looks To Grow Through Diversifying
By: Jerry Siebenmark
Caption: Aircraft Specialties looks to expand its repair capabilities beyond wheel and brake overhaul and repair.
Word Count: 456
Aircraft Specialties (ASI) got its start 37 years ago focusing on wheel and brake repair and overhaul for commercial, government, military, and corporate aircraft—including the VC-25 that transports the U.S. president. “ASI has the capabilities to work on any wheel or brake,” ASI director of sales, procurement, and marketing Eugene Portela told AIN. “We have unlimited [capabilities] for all makes; all models provided we could get the technical data.”
But in recent years the Omaha, Nebraska-based, privately held company has mostly focused on wheels and brakes for corporate operators and flight departments as well as business jet OEMs including Bombardier and Textron Aviation. The company keeps on hand 300 overhauled wheel and brake exchange units for immediate shipment.
At the same time, ASI has been diversifying its business, becoming a distributor of unrelated aircraft products such as fire safety equipment, cleaning supplies, O-rings, and fluid containers from companies such as Real Clean Aviation Products, Rapco Fleet Support, and Hot-Stop L lithium-ion fire containment kits.
Diversification at the FAA and EASA Part 145-certified company continues with ASI awaiting FAA approval to expand its ops-specs to include repair of aircraft components such as hydraulics and other parts. “That paperwork is already filed so we expect to have that literally any day, we’re hoping,” Portela added. The company’s in-house machine shop is equipped with CNC lathes and mills for wheel and brake repair and overhaul as well as for fabricating other parts and tools.
Aircraft Specialties maintains a stock of 300 overhauled wheel and brake exchange units for immediate shipment. (Photo: Aircraft Specialties)
Other services ASI provides include tool calibration—such as gauges and torque wrenches—parts sourcing, and strategic partnerships with MROs for the repair of starter-generators, relays, and other electro-mechanical products. Those partnerships “allow us to have our customers not only get their wheels and brakes serviced through us but allow them to have other components serviced within the ASI family,” Portela explained.
Nearly two years ago, ASI moved to a 43,000-sq-ft building, construction of which began in the throes of the Covid-19 pandemic. “We started building and Covid hit,” Portela said. “We had a big decision to make: do we continue to build, or do we stop? We kind of threw all the chips to the middle. This is what our plan was, and we moved ahead with the plan.” The shop portion of the building was designed for efficiency, he added, and as a result, ASI has improved its service and turn times with the same number of employees, which now number 45.