An Aviation Firm That Grew Out of a Crisis Is Now Making a $5.7 Million Expansion

Oct. 14—A Wichita company that was born out of necessity after the economic downturn of 2008 is now expanding with a $5.7 million investment at Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport with the help of $1.1 million in incentives.

Mid-Continent Aviation Services, a certified FAA repair station, announced a new 31,500-square-foot hangar this week at the National Business Aviation Association's convention in Las Vegas.

"We are just a home-grown . . . company," said MCAS director Kelly Lousch. "We're small, but we're excited to be growing."

MCAS President Dave VanderGriend credits the city of Wichita for being proactive and visionary.

"There's quite a few programs that the city of Wichita and the Wichita Airport Authority and others have put together to help young, upstart businesses like MCAS get their sea legs."

The business grew out of a corporate flight department at VanderGriend's Colwich-based ICM Corp., which is an engineering and manufacturing company that works in the fuel ethanol industry.

When 2008 hit, and ICM's planes stopped flying, VanderGriend called a meeting with the handful of employees in his flight department.

"I sat down with the employees and asked them what they wanted to do, and they said, 'Well, let's just start an independent maintenance group.' "

They called it Mid-Continent Aviation Services after what was at the time called Wichita Mid-Continent Airport, "Then they went and changed the name on me," VanderGriend said with a laugh.

MCAS leased hangar space from Executive AirShare at 1640 S. Airport Road.

When VanderGriend purchased the troubled Quest Aircraft in Idaho, he needed to set up a certified repair station for the Kodiak planes the company manufactured, so MCAS grew. He then turned around Quest financially and sold it.

MCAS continued "working on a lot of small airplanes for people, and it is almost impossible to make any money doing small airplanes," VanderGriend said.

In 2017, he connected with Lousch, who was working at another company at the airport but also was the previous director of customer and technical support at Hawker Beechcraft before being laid off in 2014.

Lousch pitched a plan to offer customer support for the Hawker 4000 through MCAS.

"We've really just kind of made a name for ourselves for being there to support products that people thought were going to be backed by the OEM (original equipment manufacturer)," she said.

When Textron bought Beechcraft and stopped production on the Hawker 4000, the Hawker 125 series and Beechcraft Premier, Lousch said, "Those customers and owners were kind of left a little bit out of the loop."

As Textron focused more on new aircraft, it created an opportunity for companies like MCAS to service the legacy aircraft.

"That's the niche we fill," VanderGriend said. "And that has worked out very well for us."

They realized they needed more hangar space "about that next day," he said. "The hangars that we did have the Hawker 4000 didn't fit."

They made a significant investment and acquired more hangars for a total of four, including one that was a few blocks away.

Now, they've demolished a 15,000-square-foot hangar to build a 31,500-square-foot one at 1600 and 1640 Airport Road.

Previously, VanderGriend said, "We could work on three Hawker 4000s at a time. You kind of had to squeeze around them."

The new hangar, which should be ready in March, will accommodate six.

"And we will be doubling the size of our work force over the next few years," Lousch said.

There are about 20 full-time employees now.

"We are expecting to hit that 40 mark by year five."

There are tax incentives if MCAS hits those employee numbers.

MCAS also is receiving a sales tax exemption in lieu of industrial revenue bonds that it could have requested.

The materials it purchases for construction also will be exempt from sales tax due to the size of the project.

Through a program the state has with Evergy, some energy costs will be offset for the new MCAS facility and the equipment that will run in it over the next five years.

"Building on our foundation as the Air Capital of the World will help continue the record economic success our state has achieved coming out of the pandemic," Gov. Laura Kelly said in a statement. "I look forward to our continued partnership with Mid-Continent and the entire aviation community to bring more jobs and investment to our state."

Lousch called VanderGriend a "big entrepreneur and supporter of aviation."

"I'm just a guy who had airplanes, and I could fly one," he said. "Bringing Kelly on . . . is what really jump-started MCAS into a viable company."

He said she had built relationships with pilots of 40 planes, "So when she came to MCAS, those 40 planes came along, so we immediately had a workload. We immediately could pay the hangar rent and do the business."

"We just took off, and we haven't really looked back," Lousch said.

MCAS services a variety of planes, and the new hangar will allow for more opportunities.

"You have to have the facility in order to . . . entice the owner to come to your place for business," VanderGriend said. "Then we will grow as . . . fast as we can to take advantage of the space."

He said he never expected his company to get to this point, "And there were multiple times along the way I questioned my own sanity by even doing it."

He said the city's involvement "just helps make the airport more valuable to the community."

Other aviation-related companies now rent office space from MCAS, and there are private aircraft owners interested in renting hangar space from the company, too.

VanderGriend said he can't say which way his company is going to go next.

"I could not believe 10 years ago we would be doing what we're doing today. I don't know what we'll be doing 10 years from now other than we have a big hangar to pay for."

There's something else on Lousch's to-do list

Not only did MCAS lose its Mid-Continent Airport affiliation, but the company chose its name before MCAS — or Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System — became a phrase associated with the troubled Boeing 737 Max.

"We were cool before MCAS was a 737 deal," Lousch said.

Some people have even asked her if MCAS is trying to make a joke, and she assures them she is not.

"We just have to reinvent the MCAS acronym."

This story was originally published October 14, 2021 11:17 AM.

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