Story ID: 132SummitAIN0717
Summit Building Thriving Helo-support Business
By: Mark Huber
Caption: The company has found markets in both the civil and military sectors.
Word Count: 632
Greenwich AeroGroup's Summit Aviation has doubled its business in the last five years by pursuing maintenance and parts manufacturing opportunities in the civil and military helicopter markets. Summit operates from three locations: a maintenance and modification facility at Middletown Airport (KEVY), Del.; a manufacturing plant in Somerset, Ky.; and an aerospace machining facility in Kernersville, N.C. In sum, the company currently employs 220 people, 150 of them in Delaware. Last year the company touched 217 helicopters.  

Ralph Kunz, Summit's vice president and general manager, said the company's work mix is split equally between military and civil; working on CH-47Ds and Fs in concert with Boeing for the Army and on select foreign military sales contracts for operators in Canada, the Netherlands, and the UK as well as assembling Sikorsky-Schweizer 333s under Sikorsky's production certificate for export to Saudi Arabia. The 333s are then trucked the relatively short distance from Middletown to Sikorsky's plant in Coatesville, Penn. for flight-testing before shipment to the customer. Kunz emphasizes that Summit does not have Schweizer PMA and is not a Schweizer service center. Summit is also providing parts services for select CH-47s under contract with Boeing and offering maintenance services for the CH-47s that have found their way onto the civil market in recent years. Half the technicians Summit has hired for the Delaware operation have come out of the military.

Summit's Kentucky operation has full build-to-print capability and manufactures parts for Sikorsky's military and commercial helicopters as well as Northrop Grumman's unmanned Firescout C and B, smaller military drones and parts for  Bombardier and Cessna airplanes. Summit's personnel are security vetted and qualified to work on government programs, Kunz said. “We have a military group that caters to the military and we have top-secret clearance of all of our employees. Our facilities are cleared for secure work and are certified for the government's standard S8210 [security awareness training and education].”

Summit has developed a specialty installing ISR (intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance) sensors and workstations on aircraft and has been refitting offshore helicopters. The company has also built a thriving parapublic practice catering to law enforcement and EMS customers in the Northeast as well as corporate customers in the New York City area. It is a Bell authorized service center for the 407, 429 and 412 and a Sikorsky authorized service center for all S-76 variants. “Our hangars are chock full of S-76s,” Kunz said. While not an authorized service center for MD Helicopters, Summit does support MD520s operated by the Prince George's County (Maryland) Police. “We also see a lot of AS350s, EC135s and EC145s,” Kunz said. Summit has built what Kunz called an “ad hoc” parts business supporting Bell 407s and S-76s. “We stock parts and buy excess inventory for some operators,” he said. Summit not only has the capability to perform light and heavy maintenance, but it can also offer interior refurbishment and aircraft painting. “We work with local vendors on completions. We've done full VIP and corporate interiors for S-76s, but we can also do re-upholstery and cabinetry repairs. And our paint shop can handle aircraft as large as S-92s, CH-47s and King Airs,” Kunz said.

Another Summit program involves embedding a company mechanic full-time at the customer location. Summit is currently providing that service for the Delaware State Police, Prince George's County Police, U.S. Park Police and the U.S. Navy's Engineering Logistics Office in Norfolk, Va. “Providing that level of service has paid dividends for us,” Kunz said, “and it reduces customers' maintenance costs over time” because the Summit technician can draw on all of the company's resources on behalf of the customer to speed troubleshooting and resolve maintenance issues more quickly.