Pilot to Pilot

A New York real estate developer turned in his backhoe for Aviat Aircraft

In 1990, Stuart Horn concluded that residential real estate development in the New York City area wasn't much fun. The problems included failing banks, boom-and-bust economic cycles, neighborhood opposition to development projects, and labor troubles. He decided that when his current projects were completed, he would find something else.

"I had a five-year pipeline [of homes to build]. I said that at the end of the five years, I would like to do something that's more fun," Horn recalled. That established 1995 as the year he would do something else, whatever that meant.

In 1994, there was an ad in The Wall Street Journal advertising a "U.S. aircraft manufacturer" for sale. It was Aviat Aircraft in Afton, Wyoming, manufacturer of the famous Pitts S-2C aerobatic biplane and the Husky, a workhorse tailwheel aircraft originally designed to out-Cub the Piper Super Cub. It caught his attention, since Horn had long been interested in aviation.

"I was always one of those kids who was interested in aviation — who built model airplanes and went to the airport on his bicycle," Horn said. "When I was in high school, I did take flying lessons, but I never received the pilot's license."

Aviat was just the kind of fun place he'd hoped for. Horn became a motivated bidder for Aviat and won. "At the end of the game, I had the darkest rose-colored glasses on," Horn joked. He bought the company just before Christmas 1995 — the perfect gift for the kid within. He has never regretted his departure from home building, although he admits he faced a steep learning curve.

"The fact that I had no product knowledge or technical knowledge — in a certain sense — was discomforting. But I felt I had strengths in enough broad areas of expertise to overcome the shortcomings. I felt I could pick up the technical details very quickly. In a short time those things did come to me by asking a lot of questions and getting a lot of answers.

"Luckily, we had an operational, FAA-certified production facility. We had a lot of expertise and knowledge unique to that company, and it was in place."

The steepest part of the learning curve came when he attempted to launch two new products, or rather, a revival of two older aircraft: the Monocoupe — intended to win air races in the 1930s — and the Globe Swift. The Monocoupe is a two-place tailwheel aerobatic aircraft design that failed to meet today's market expectations for handling qualities and cabin comforts. The market literally wasn't buying it. The Swift project, basically a tweaking of an old design to add performance and creature comforts, is dormant at the moment.

"What I learned in doing the Swift and the Monocoupe projects is this," Horn said. "I thought it would be easier to reintroduce an old type-certificated airplane and bring that back into production with some enhancements that people would like to see in the year 2001.

"In point of fact, it's actually more difficult. It's easier to take a clean-sheet design from ground zero and create a new airplane that meets or exceeds what pilots today expect. When I got involved in the Swift and the Monocoupe, I didn't understand that. If you make a change to the wing, or the landing gear, or the engine, you have to substantiate not only the changed part but also how it interacts with the total airframe. All the testing, documentation, and substantiation requirements are therefore equivalent to starting over. There are no shortcuts."

Other new designs coming

That doesn't mean he has given up on new designs. Someday he plans to build a tricycle-gear airplane that will appeal to a majority of the market. "We may have a step between here and there before we get there. Clearly five years down the line, Aviat will have a nosewheel airplane," Horn promised.

Future construction may not be a radical departure from Aviat's past, but it will combine the best of all materials. Aviat now works with a diverse spectrum of materials — fabric, wood, and metal. "There is no universal material that is applicable for all the fit, form, and function requirements of an airplane," Horn said. "The loads change throughout the airplane, and therefore you need materials that are specific to the load requirements. You should design an airplane that takes advantage of those materials. Aviat is looking at designs that allow us to do that. The aircraft doesn't necessarily have to be all aluminum or all composite," he said.

Òor now, Horn is concentrating on present products. A few years ago, he redesigned the Pitts S-2B into the S-2C so that it not only performs better, but has fewer parts and is therefore easier to manufacture.

"In the context of manufacturing the Pitts and the Husky, they were designed based on labor forces that had skills which no longer exist in today's world. So part of the design is the manufacturing production process. How do you get the highest fit, form, and production with the fewest parts or labor component required? These considerations are what we have to look at in the future. Look at what Chrysler did with the Viper and Prowler. This is where the aircraft industry needs to go. The Viper has 600 parts, and the production facility has 26 work stations; every 45 minutes a car rolls off the line.

"When we created the S-2C, we redesigned the structure of the wing. We received two benefits. We increased the performance capability of the wing and the ailerons, and in the process we eliminated 1,000 parts, if you can imagine that. We were able to make the structure lighter and stronger. The company, the pilots, and the aircraft all received higher value.

"All aircraft companies, if they are going to stay in business, will gravitate toward that position if they haven't already," Horn said.

Sierra Flight Systems

In the course of finding avionics for the Swift project, Horn nearly bought another company, Sierra Flight Systems. Instead, he became a financial partner. In trying to add modern technology and value to an older design, he called Rockwell Collins and explained what he wanted. The sales representative said that he couldn't put it all in one black box, but he had two units that together would do all the things Horn had requested. One cost $700,000, while the other cost $1 million. "I said, 'Thank you very much' and hung up the phone, realizing that wasn't going to work for the Swift, since the whole airplane was projected to be less than $200,000.

"Someone suggested I contact Sierra Flight Systems [a company building a glass cockpit for general aviation aircraft and currently selling to the experimental aircraft market]. I was exposed to the product, and while we were talking I said, 'Can I buy the company?' We put it in a Husky and flew it, and were just totally amazed by its capabilities and ease of operation. That led to investing in Sierra and helping with the certification of the product.

"We're not certified yet. All the hurdles and obstacles have been defined to achieve certification and have been resolved. Essentially, it is a matter of dotting the Is and crossing the Ts. It could be certified this calendar year.

"If there is a shining star, this product is it. I foresee within five or seven years every new aircraft manufacturer, whether it is general aviation, commercial, or military — whether it is fixed-wing or rotary-wing — will have equipment like that new from the manufacturer.

"The average pilot is able to process all the information necessary to gain complete situational awareness with very little effort. It is all the flight data required to make that assessment — engine, air, navigation data, communication data — whatever is needed is converted to a pictorial image that is interpreted intuitively. It is all set up as well for [weather and other] data to be transmitted from the ground."

Yes, but can he fly?

So did Horn ever get his pilot certificate? He has been too busy keeping a company going to get the certificate, but he is a student pilot.

"One of the things I thought was, 'Man, I'll be able to fly every day.' It just never worked out that way. There were time and weather issues, and aircraft availability issues. They are always being used on research," Horn said. His plans are to take the private written test, complete the private certificate, and then get the commercial certificate. "If I go beyond that, I will get the instrument rating."

After buying Aviat, he first got into sailplane flying, and found the concept of flying without an engine and a propeller a challenge. Then he tackled his own products.

"I soloed a Pitts, which was a big kick. It gives you a sense of freedom to loop, roll, and feel confident." Unlike most student pilots, he can do a spin, loop, and roll in sequence. "The structure of the airplane is so robust that you don't have to worry about a thing," Horn said.

Is this more fun?

When Horn bought Aviat, he spent two days with former owner Malcolm White. White seemingly had time on his hands, which Horn took as a good sign. "He had a production manager and an engineering manager, all kinds of managers. I kind of looked at him and asked, 'What do you do all day?' He said, 'Just have fun.' I thought 'Wow, this is really nice.'

"Of course, that's not the reality of the situation. There's a lot of work and it is much more difficult managing a production facility than it is building a housing development. The reason is, a production facility is endless — there is no beginning and there is no end. It is a continuous operation. When you build a housing development, there is clearly a beginning, middle, and end.

"I'm having fun, but it is a lot more work than I ever imagined," Horn said.

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