Always Trust Your Cape: The Soaring Story of Duncan Aviation

STEVE JORDON AND CAROL HUNT

ALWAYS TRUST YOUR

CAPE

The Soaring Story of Duncan Aviation

STEVE JORDON AND CAROL HUNT

BY STEVE JORDON AND CAROL HUNT

Facing page: Matt Granucci, employee photo contest entry

Title page: Howard Nitzel, employee photo contest entry

Copyright © 2021 Duncan Aviation, Inc. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior consent of the publisher, Duncan Aviation, Inc.

Duncan Aviation 3701 Aviation Rd. Lincoln, NE 68524

DuncanAviation.aero

First Edition

ISBN: 978-0-578-89955-8

Printed by Walsworth Publishing Co.

“THE CAPE”

By Guy Clark, Susanna Clark and Jim Janosky

Eight years old with a flour sack cape tied all around his neck. He climbed up on the garage, he’s figurin’ what the heck, well, He screwed his courage up so tight that the whole thing come unwound. He got a runnin’ start and bless his heart, he’s headed for the ground.

Well, he’s one of those who knows that life is just a leap of faith. Spread your arms and hold your breath and always trust your cape.

Now, he’s all grown up with a flour sack cape tied all around his dream. And he’s full of spit and vinegar and he’s bustin’ at the seam. Well, he licked his finger and he checked the wind, it’s gonna be do or die. And he wasn’t scared of nothin’, boys, he was pretty sure he could fly.

Well, he’s one of those who knows that life is just a leap of faith. Spread your arms and hold your breath and always trust your cape.

Now, he’s old and gray with a flour sack cape tied all around his head. And he’s still jumpin’ off the garage and will be till he’s dead. All these years the people said, he was actin’ like a kid.

He did not know he could not fly and so he did.

Well, he’s one of those who knows that life is just a leap of faith. Spread your arms and hold your breath and always trust your cape.

Yes, he’s one of those who knows that life is just a leap of faith. Spread your arms and hold your breath and always trust your cape.

The Cape

Words and Music by Guy Clark, Susanna Clark and Jim Janosky

Copyright © 1994 EMI April Music Inc. and Susanna Clark Music

All Rights on behalf of EMI April Music Inc.

Administered by Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, 424 Church Street, Suite 1200, Nashville, TN 37219

All Rights on behalf of Susanna Clark Music Administered by BMG Rights Management (US) LLC

All Rights Reserved International Copyright Secured Used by Permission

Reprinted by Permission of Hal Leonard LLC

Designed by Christine Zueck-Watkins

INTRODUCTION

I AM SO VERY PROUD of Duncan Aviation. I am proud of the 2,500-plus team members and the hundreds before them who make up the Duncan Aviation family. I am proud that we are not only the finest in our industry but among the finest of all companies.

Many years ago I described our responsibility as a triangle with team members on one side and owners on another. The base was the most important — our primary responsibility was to our customers. I was dead wrong, and we changed. The team members, the Duncan Aviation family, is the most important. Great people doing the right thing day after day will take care of the customers, and the profits from those happy customers will fulfill our obligations to the owners. Simple, straightforward. We walk the talk.

Many, many privately owned businesses are shining examples of this people-oriented approach.

We are not unique. We take a long view, do the right thing, tell the truth, respect one another. What we have accomplished is not magic. It’s hard work, with strong values each day, every day. I am often asked if we could have imagined the business being what it is today. Would my father recognize the business today?

The answer is NO. We are not visionaries. We seize opportunities.

Our future is very bright. Although our industry is mature, Duncan Aviation continues to grow by taking market share. We have built a culture that is bigger and stronger than any one leader. We have a family constitution that specifically addresses our values, the role and responsibility of the Board of Directors, management and the Duncan family. Todd, as chairman, is part of today’s leadership, and his sons Harrison and P.K. — fourth-generation family members — are both working at the company.

I am so very proud!

ALWAYS TRUST YOUR CAPE

This book’s title reflects the belief at Duncan Aviation that, as the song says, “life is just a leap of faith.”

Donald Duncan jumped off that “garage” time and time again, taking chances, risking everything, but trusting that his strong values and all those team members would catch him. 2021 is Duncan Aviation’s 65th year. We are still jumping and still trusting our “cape.”

The Duncan boys in 2013, from left: Harrison, Robert, Todd and P.K.

“He did not know he could not fly — so he did.”

— ROBERT DUNCAN

Robert Duncan, Chairman Emeritus, Duncan Aviation

DUNCAN AVIATION

MISSION

Duncan Aviation will be the leading provider of business aviation products and services. We will employ and develop the most knowledgeable and trusted individuals in the industry. We will be highly profitable and reinvest these profits in team members, equipment and facilities to extend our leading position.

DUNCAN AVIATION

VISION

Duncan Aviation will be recognized worldwide by its customers, team members and the business aviation community as:

• The highest value provider of products and services.

• The industry leader in utilizing innovative technologies, minimizing downtimes and delivering safe aircraft on time.

• Having the most skilled, motivated, stable and family-oriented workforce in the industry.

• Being committed to team member development in the areas of leadership and technical development skills, wellness, safety and personal growth.

• Being responsive to all customer needs through full-service facilities in Lincoln, Battle Creek and Provo, and a growing network of strategically placed satellite shops and Engine Rapid Response teams.

• Continuing to grow market share and brand recognition by retaining its present customer base and capturing new customers worldwide with special emphasis and focused growth on large business aircraft.

DUNCAN AVIATION

BRAND PROMISE

Duncan Aviation is committed to provide an experience unlike any other to owners and operators of business aircraft. We do this by providing personalized expertise, innovative services and ongoing support.

DUNCAN AVIATION

CORE VALUES

At Duncan Aviation, we:

• Deliver high-quality products and services.

• Charge fair prices and provide efficient turntimes.

• Lead through action and innovation.

• Focus on solutions and offer positive suggestions.

• Respect others and are accountable for our actions.

• Maintain a team approach.

• Value honesty, integrity, loyalty and trust.

• Promote safety, health and wellness.

• Support our communities and respect the environment.

• Are proud to be the best at what we do.

DONALD’S CHILDHOOD

Donald’s parents had nearly given up on having a child, when Donald became the “miracle child” and the center of their lives. He’d get the slightest little fever and they’d put him in a bathtub of cold water to get his temperature down.

“At one point in his life, he didn’t want to go to school anymore,” Donald’s daughter-in-law, Karen, said. “Grandma Clara decided he didn’t have to go to school, so they hired somebody to come in and teach him. What a magnificent person, but he had this childhood that was really strange.”

As for going to college, Karen said, Donald “really didn’t have time — too busy getting going.”

Donald Duncan with parents Clara and Charles.

FOREWORD

Fertile Fields

FROM THE SOUTHWEST CORNER of Iowa, where farm fields border Nebraska and Missouri, comes the story of Duncan Aviation, its people and its runway to success.

The Duncan family traces its origins to Scotch-Irish immigrants who made their way through Ohio and Missouri to Iowa’s fertile land in the 19th century. Robert M. Duncan and Mary Ann Alexander Duncan never could have imagined what was to come. As time passed, their energetic offspring started businesses and chose careers that scattered them across the country.

One of their 11 children, John, and wife Annie started their own family and watched it grow and prosper as well. Their son Charles married Clara Pinkerton, and the couple had their only child in 1922, when they were in their 30s: Albert Donald Duncan, who went by Donald.

It was Clara who accumulated money earned from their farm near Clarinda, Iowa, and had the business sense to invest in stocks and bonds. She came to be known as the region’s best businesswoman of her time.

“If you had any stock in those days, you were wealthy,” said Donald’s daughter Kathryn. “She was thrifty, too, but they always had a nice car.”

Donald’s parents: Charles and Clara Duncan.

Donald’s grandparents, John Wiley Duncan and Annie R. Berry Duncan, died in 1947 from coal gas poisoning.

Airplanes were a part of the Duncan family from the early days. Robert, left, next to an unidentified woman, with sister Kathryn on the landing gear and mother Betty holding Dianne.

From Pelts to Jets

DONALD DUNCAN, in his early 20s and a married man, pushed the throttle ahead on the airplane, gaining speed across a field next to his grandma’s farm near Clarinda, Iowa, in about 1945. As the craft became airborne, the landing gear clipped a fence post and a wheel broke off.

Charles Duncan dashed over and grabbed the wheel, holding it aloft so his son could see what was missing and make a controlled landing.

The exciting incident, Donald would say later, helped trigger a lifelong interest in aviation. He and other family members, supported by a legion of aircraft technicians, managers and executives, built a business that is arguably the world’s leading independent aviation service company.

Over a span of 25 years, Donald went from selling farm equipment and pelts from critters he trapped to selling private jets worldwide. Three more generations of Duncans, so far, have followed Donald into what is now Duncan Aviation, piloting the business through economic downturns and strategic mistakes to survive and thrive alongside the rise of business aviation.

It is a story of American entrepreneurship from the ground up — to the skies — and of leaders who inspire. Even more, it’s a story of people determined to succeed, team members turning the dials on radar sets, scrubbing the floor, talking to customers, customizing business jets and building a reputation.

Donald Duncan fishing, with a 1939 Oldsmobile. The Duncans were thrifty but had nice cars. Donald’s auto dealership was a step toward the more exciting world of aviation.

“He’d come in, he’d show us a check for a milliondollar deposit. No contract, no purchase agreement, no paperwork or anything, just a handshake.

He’d finish the deal up with a bill of sale.”

SOMETIMES DONALD DUNCAN WOULD COME ROLLING UP LATE AT NIGHT IN A LEARJET HE HAD JUST SOLD TO A CUSTOMER.

— BOB MCCAMMON

You Can’t Stand Up in a Cadillac, Either

BETTY DUNCAN WAITED patiently outside an office in Wichita, Kansas, one day in 1962 as Donald talked with William Powell Lear. The two men had met before, but this meeting was different —and crucial for the fledgling business aviation industry.

“It was just the two of them, and I waited for hours for them to come out,” Betty recounted in 2002. “Bill Lear was an entrepreneur from the word go. He was an inventor. He had so much smarts, but he had no business head on him at all.

“Lear was going to give up on the idea of building the first Learjet, and Donald was in there until midnight, trying to convince him not to give up the ship. I don’t know how Donald talked him out of it, whether we gave him money, or whether Donald just gave him the itch to do it.”

Whatever was discussed behind that closed door — how to overcome the risks of creating a private jet, a lack of money, uncertain demand — “Learjet would not have been Learjet without Donald going into that conference room,” Betty said.

Everything was heading higher and going faster at the time. After all, this was the decade men went to the moon. CEOs from all over the world, and especially from the United States, were clamoring for advantages over their competitors.

“Donald Duncan saw the future of corporate aircraft when the Learjet came out,” said Council Bluffs businessman John Nelson, later a member of Duncan Aviation’s first Board of Advisors, a group of outside aviation experts Robert Duncan recruited.

William Lear’s business jet revolutionized business travel and gave Duncan Aviation a fast start. Donald Duncan became the all-time top Learjet salesman, with an engraved Rolex watch as proof.

Facing page: A promotional shot of Duncan Aviation’s extra services for customers: Kathy Jo Nissen delivers a tray of treats to pilot Ralph Heaton.

“On most days we had 10 to 15 airplanes stop for fuel. Some days we had 25 or 30, and we pumped a lot of fuel. It gave them an introduction to Duncan Aviation. Clorox was one of our better customers. They had a JetStar. They stopped for fuel once in a while when they were deadheading back home. They’d stay overnight, go out to dinner with my wife and I and several of the line guys. We made a lot of friends that way.”

— BOB MCCAMMON

Red Carpet and a Smile

HENRY CRAFT ROLLED OUT his red carpet and smiled when airplanes taxied up to Duncan Aviation’s fixed-base operation (FBO) in Lincoln in the 1960s. He was the base’s original lineman, in charge of greeting, refueling and anything else needed by pilots, passengers and planes. The Duncan family’s Beechcraft distributorship was still in Omaha, but things were getting tense with the Omaha Airport Authority, owner of Eppley Airfield.

The Duncans paid a percentage of revenue to the airport, Betty Duncan recalled. “They kept raising the percentage. They were getting all the money, and we were beating our heads against the wall, because we were making very little profit.”

Beechcraft dealership sales were volatile during the infancy of business air travel, with few buyers and high prices. All in all, Betty said, “it was really easy to say goodbye to Omaha and come down here to Lincoln.”

In 1963, the Lincoln Airport Authority opened bidding for companies to start FBOs on the general aviation side of the airfield, which was home to a U.S. Air Force base until 1966. Duncan Aviation’s bid was accepted, and construction began on two large maintenance hangars and 62 airplane storage hangars.

Lincoln was an ideal location: The Air Force had installed a huge runway, surrounded by lots of open land for lease at low rates. The airport management, led by Rolland Harr, was excited to have Duncan Aviation’s small but growing operation.

Robert Duncan started working summers at the Lincoln office while he was in high school in Omaha. “He had a cot upstairs, and he didn’t come home a lot of nights,” Betty said.

Kathryn pitched in answering the phone at the front desk and doing anything that needed to be done. “I loved it, because I felt responsible,” she said. “I took care of the customers when they came in, and I did the gas receipts. I commuted back and forth between Omaha and Lincoln. There was nobody else, except for Henry and a mechanic named Les.”

Joe Huffman Sr. checks the tolerance of a piston before reassembling an engine. By 1974, Duncan Aviation was equipped to handle major repairs and inspections.

“I would have to compliment Southeast Community College in Milford in the very beginning days. It got to the point where the guys at Milford knew that the people who were coming to Duncan Aviation were working on airplanes, so I had a lot of help in hiring good people from Milford.”

— DON FIEDLER

Seeking the Best

DURING THE 1960S AND 1970S, Duncan Aviation built a core staff of mechanics, technicians, designers and others who created a tradition of high-quality work. The growing team became the backbone of the family business.

Locating at Lincoln’s airport turned out to be a good move for recruiting. One of the first to join was Ron Hall, who as a young man had scored extremely high in electronics on his pre-enlistment aptitude test in 1962. Ron chose the Air Force partly because he had flown a small plane while in the Civil Air Patrol at his high school in southern Kansas.

“I had nine months at the aircraft electronics school at Kessler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi,” Ron said. “I loved it. The Air Force had really good instructors. When I finished, I signed up for England, but they sent me to Lincoln, Nebraska. I had never heard of it.”

At the Lincoln base, he was one of a dozen specialists who reinvigorated a tattered B-47 fleet, earning $100 a month and all the food they could eat. Ron left the service as the Vietnam War was heating up and as the term “avionics” was coming into use to describe airplanes’ electronic systems.

He took a job with Learjet in Wichita for $2.35 an hour, then ran into Duncan Aviation managers who offered him $12,000 a year. Back in Lincoln, his technician’s job led to a sales position and promotions.

“When I started in the business, avionics shops were few and far between,” Ron said. “There were little two- and three-man shops. As things went on, we grew up.”

“To look at the empire today, it’s the American dream,” said Ron Hall, center, with John Slieter, left, and Gary Harpster. “And it’s made the dream for a lot of people. Appreciate it, because there was a lot of blood, sweat and tears by a lot of people along the way.”

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENTS

By the time Donald Duncan died January 18, 1981, he had sold about 450 Learjets, a record that may never be broken. In addition, few pilots can top his 20,000-plus flying hours, and no one would try to match his estimated 70,000 hours of working telephone time — the equivalent of more than eight years of nonstop talking.

“Donald was a person I talked to. If we wanted to bounce ideas off of each other, if you needed advice about something, you’d go sit down and talk about it. “Donald had a unique ability to not hang onto disagreements or arguments. We’d disagree about something, go home at night and be angry at one another. The next day, you’d never know it. He’d start the whole day new. No word was said, and we’d just go on.”

— ROBERT DUNCAN

A Death in the Family

DONALD DUNCAN AND HARRY BARR had been friends and partners since the 1950s, when they met as airplane-happy young men in rural southwestern Iowa. As their careers developed into Learjet sales, Donald often would sit in the passenger section, making a pitch to the potential buyer, while Harry would be in the cockpit doing the same with the corporate pilot.

In January 1981 Donald was at the controls when the two men took off in Florida in a King Air, a turboprop Beechcraft that had become a standard non-jet business aircraft. They flew late into the night, dropping off customers in New Orleans and other mid-flight destinations and ending up at home in Lincoln. It was routine; they had flown together too many times to count. But their trip the next morning would have a profound impact on the Duncan family and on the company that the two men, and many others, had built into a growing, lively part of the nation’s aviation industry.

With very little sleep, Harry and Donald, along with Donald’s wife Katie, went back to the Lincoln Airport and loaded up another twin-engine turboprop, this time a Cessna Conquest. They headed to San Diego, where the company had a booth at a helicopter show. They had been invited to a whale-watching excursion in the Pacific Ocean. As the day aboard the boat wore on, Donald didn’t feel well and went below for a nap.

The nap didn’t help, Harry recounted later. “He still wasn’t feeling very well, so we decided we’d get in the Conquest and head off.”

Donald still felt ill when they arrived at the home of longtime friends Jeff and Betty Jeffries in Carefree, Arizona, just outside Scottsdale. He simply went to bed and didn’t think of going to a doctor, Harry said, because “that wasn’t his style.”

They found Donald the next morning. Harry tried CPR, but it was no use. Donald Duncan was dead of a heart attack at age 58.

Donald Duncan obituary

THE PLAN TO REDUCE DEBT BY SELLING OFF AIRCRAFT AT A LOSS LIKELY ORIGINATED WITH THE LATE DUANE ACKLIE, A LINCOLN BUSINESSMAN AND MEMBER OF THE FIRST BOARD OF ADVISORS. AFTER THE FIRE SALE, SALESMAN BOB MCCAMMON SAID: “We were a lot more cautious on what we were doing when buying, selling airplanes.”

Weathering a Financial Storm

BETTY DUNCAN DID THE calculation, and it wasn’t pretty.

Duncan Aviation in 1981 had a fleet of unsold, mortgaged Learjets and other business aircraft that was costing $10,000 a day, with interest rates soon topping 20 percent because Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker had resolved to “break the back of inflation.”

The nationwide financial crisis almost broke Duncan Aviation, and Robert Duncan was the CEO who had to find a way through it.

“We’ve heard stories of Robert and Karen having to go to the bank and deposit money to make payroll, back when we had 100 or fewer people,” said executive Steve Gade. “I know there were times when people didn’t know if they were going to get a paycheck.”

Robert called Karen to have lunch one day at the Lincoln Exchange restaurant and was almost in tears about a possible failure. “I don’t know if we’re going to make it,” he told her. Karen was an emotional fortress during those trying days, keeping both Robert and the family on track. “I slept,” he said later. “She didn’t.”

The grim news was a sharp contrast to the previous decade. The return of Donald Duncan, who had worked temporarily for Gates Learjet, had helped launch a period of growth and expansion before his untimely death.

During that period, Duncan Aviation was no longer a Learjet dealer but still was buying as much as 10 percent of Lear’s new production on credit, speculating that rising aircraft prices would more than make up for interest costs that had been more reasonable at the time.

Flight operations continued in 1981, but cancelled orders and parked aircraft hurt revenue.

How many airplanes did Harry Barr have?

“That’s a secret,” he said, although he admitted to owning five aerobatic planes, including a Bonanza, a Hiperbipe, a One Design and an Eagle. “Too many toys, not enough time.”

Flying High

LET’S STEP BACK IN TIME to share one of Duncan Aviation’s enduring sagas, the story of Harry Barr.

One day in early 1952, Tom Barr settled his brand-new Piper Super Cub into an Iowa alfalfa field, a short hop from his Iowa home, to visit his aunt and uncle and his 17-year-old cousin Harry at their dairy farm near Clarinda. Tom, a contractor from Osceola, used his airplane to scope out road projects.

“I conned him into giving me an airplane ride,” said Harry. “I was sitting behind him, in the back seat. He let me grab ahold of the stick, and I found out that I could make this thing do something. I got hooked.”

More than a half-century later, Duncan Aviation employees cheered when Harry, the pilot extraordinaire, was introduced at company gatherings. They tell stories burnished into the stuff of legend: Helicoptering power poles in Alaska, plucking daredevils off motorcycles with a rope ladder dangling from a Piper Cub, circling above veterans’ funerals in his P-51 Mustang, taking off from short runways and staying humble about it all.

As a young man, Harry had saved enough from his job with the town plumber, plus $2,000 from his father, to buy his own 1950 Pacer PA-20. “When I finally got my airplane, I gave my dad a ride and my mother a ride.”

Aviation quickly became the major force in Harry’s life. “I haven’t been back to the farm since, except to visit.”

Harry’s friendship and business alliance with Donald Duncan began in 1954 — after he had been turned down for a driving job at Duncan Motors by Darlene Christensen, who thought he was too young for the responsibility of transporting autos. Along the way, Harry played key roles in Duncan Aviation’s development, including a time as a one-third partner in the business, and added an aura of adventure and fun to its history.

HARRY BARR, 1935-2020

Harry taught me to fly. He gave me my first flying job. He showed me what adventure was all about. Harry came to the office every day until the end, years after I had stopped coming in. He was “a pilot’s pilot” and survived way more than nine lives. He was a partner. He was loyal. He was like a brother. Everyone looked up to Harry. He will be missed. Tailwinds, Harry.

— ROBERT DUNCAN

Harry with Jack Ager, right. Jack and his wife, Bunny, managed the Argosy program in Alaska for Duncan Aviation.

1991 Pro Pilot FBO Contest Specialist Winner: Best Avionics Shop, Duncan Aviation, Lincoln (above) and Best Maintenance Shop, Duncan Aviation, Lincoln (right)

From Shoes to Satellites

SOMETIMES GREAT IDEAS emerge when you just listen.

Karen Duncan was shopping for shoes at the Hovland-Swanson store in Lincoln one day in the early 1980s. Husband Robert began talking to the shoe department manager.

“It’s not really a Hovland-Swanson department,” the manager told him. “We just rent spaces in department stores. We’re a separate company, just buying and selling shoes.”

He explained that the arrangement freed Hovland-Swanson from dealing with shoe inventory, attracted customers who were there to buy other things and gave the store some rent. All the store had to provide was space. The shoe company, for its part, didn’t have to open brick-and-mortar locations and could focus on buying the right brands, setting prices and hiring salespeople. It was a classic win-win-win for the two businesses and their customers.

“I went back and thought about that,” Robert recalled. How could Duncan Aviation do something like that? The question inspired an innovative business opportunity.

By 1984, Duncan Aviation had honed its skills in avionics, and Lincoln was becoming the go-to place for corporate jets to buy, maintain and upgrade radar, autopilots and other fancy, fast-developing equipment. Customers would fly to Lincoln specifically for avionics work, even if it was a bit out of the way, because of the staff’s reputation for high-quality, on-time service.

The Lincoln business was voted the best avionics shop in the country in 1985 and the next 25 years, until the aviation trade journal stopped doing that particular survey.

Lori Hermsen works on an avionics console. Satellite shops grew out of the Lincoln avionics department and now represent a steady source of revenue and service relationships.

“Betty Duncan always used to give me a hug and kiss and tell me how thankful she was for some of the changes that we made,” CEO Aaron Hilkemann said. “She was part of the company for a long time and knew it from the beginning, so I know she was very happy how the company grew and evolved.”

Right Man, Right Time

AARON HILKEMANN REALIZED he would soon be out of work when his employer, FirsTier Bank, went up for sale. But that unexpected twist in Aaron’s fortune turned out to be good news for Duncan Aviation.

Executives like Aaron usually had long careers at FirsTier, an Omaha bank that had been independent since 1856 and didn’t seem a likely candidate to be bought by an out-oftown corporation.

Aaron, a Norfolk, Nebraska, native, had worked eight years for a national accounting firm after graduating in 1980 from Wayne State College. He learned a lot about business from his half-dozen large clients, including FirsTier and Omaha construction and mining giant Kiewit Corporation.

FirsTier hired him as director of internal audit and, soon after, he met Robert Duncan, who was chairman of the audit committee of FirsTier’s Lincoln bank. “I remember he came in with the bow tie on,” Aaron said. “He was talking about his new president who had just been hired and some of the changes they had gone through.”

Robert said his non-executive role with FirsTier turned out to be a valuable connection. “It’s a good reason to get involved in other things, to meet other people, to network.”

Before long, Aaron became chief financial officer of FirsTier and Robert became a director of the holding company that owned the banks in Omaha and Lincoln. The two ended up working closely together on the bank’s finances for eight years.

In 1995, First Bank of Minneapolis made an offer to purchase FirsTier, and Aaron was one of several FirsTier executives who would be leaving. Robert saw Aaron’s departure as an opportunity for the Duncan family businesses, even if he didn’t know anything about corporate aircraft. Aaron was spending about half his time at FirsTier acquiring other banks, a skill that might come in handy for the Duncans.

Business consultant Bob Beale said Aaron “is really an exceptional leader-manager. Managers pull the day-to-day operations together, and leaders inspire and motivate.”

Duncan Aviation leaders assemble in Buena Vista, Colorado, for a four-day Senior Team retreat in August 2019, a later trip than the one described on the next page. Activities included bicycle rides, fly fishing and hiking, including optional treks to the peaks of Mount Belford and Mount Harvard.

Leadership and Teamwork

DARLENE CHRISTENSEN GOT AN odd phone call one day at her desk at Duncan Aviation. The connection was so scratchy she couldn’t make out for sure who was calling, or exactly what the person was saying. Something about “Cherry Hill” or “Cherry Peak”?

It sounded important enough that she decided to call Tom Burt, who was in Colorado with five other Duncan Aviation executives on a hiking expedition.

That morning, the group’s goal was to hike up Colorado’s Mount Harvard, a 14,000foot peak that required a long walk through a river valley not far from Aspen. Aaron Hilkemann, then Duncan Aviation’s president, and two others decided they also would hike up Mount Columbia, another 14,000-footer across the valley. His idea was to log two peaks in a single day and then meet the others back where their van was parked.

Tom’s group of three could see Aaron’s trio making its way toward Mount Columbia to the southeast, but before long, radio contact broke off around the rugged terrain. Tom’s group was headed for the hotel to get cleaned up for supper when his mobile phone rang.

It was Darlene, relaying the “Cherry something” message.

“I think it was Aaron,” she said.

Puzzled, Tom and the others pulled out a map and spotted a place called Cherry Point. “You don’t suppose those guys ended up back there?” Tom said. He took the van and headed for Cherry Point, about 10 miles in the other direction.

“We were driving on these off-road tracks,” Tom said. “Sure enough, I see these spent pups walking toward me, just beat to death. When they saw me, they were happy, because they were about 10 miles from the hotel at that point, and nobody knew where they were. So I was lucky enough to find them.”

Darlene Christensen, at her desk as usual, received a phone call while team leaders were on a retreat.

A jet outside Duncan Aviation’s facility in Battle Creek, Michigan, formerly Kal-Aero: Aaron Hilkemann’s banking experience before he joined Duncan Aviation was valuable in the 1998 acquisition of Kal-Aero, including arranging financing. “But it wasn’t just me. It was the credibility of Duncan Aviation.”

‘A Major Leap’

JOHN ELLIS STARTED KAL-AERO with the Navy flight pay he had saved during his military career, plus money from his then-father-in-law. He had a successful 35-year run, but he began to weigh his options because he would need more capital to compete and his partners, Suzanne “Sue” Upjohn Parish and her husband, Preston “Pete” Parish, were closing in on retirement age. (Suzanne’s grandfather, William E. Upjohn, had founded the pharmaceutical manufacturer Upjohn Co., which merged into a Swedish company and later became part of Pfizer Inc.)

General Electric made an offer to buy them out, and other big businesses also were interested in the Kalamazoo, Michigan-based Duncan Aviation competitor.

“I was concerned about what was going to happen to Kal-Aero,” John said. He suspected that corporate ownership would disrupt the family-oriented business he had founded, just as an earlier buyout had disrupted the Upjohn family’s pharmaceutical business.

John began discussing the problem in 1997 with Aaron Hilkemann, Duncan Aviation’s president, while waiting at an airport after an aviation industry meeting. “Somehow we got to the idea that there might be a way to combine our businesses in some way or other,” John said. “That was the genesis of what happened.”

Their discreet meeting turned into Duncan Aviation’s biggest expansion, a defining step in its advancement as a nationwide aviation service company.

Back in 1974, after John’s marriage ended, his former father-in-law planned to sell his part of the business and gave John a chance to find new investors. The Parishes were good customers and agreed to become majority owners and board members, with John running the aircraft service company.

John Ellis flew F-4 and F-8 fighters and was a flight instructor in the Navy. He opened Kal-Aero on April 1, 1967, hiring three technicians, a salesman, an office manager and a line service man.

Private aviation moved to larger aircraft over the years, and big corporate jets needed large facilities.

Great Recession

U.S. REPRESENTATIVE GARY ACKERMAN had the microphone at a 2008 House committee hearing on a proposal to bail out automakers as the nation’s economy was collapsing.

“There is a delicious irony in seeing private luxury jets flying into Washington, D.C., and people coming off them with tin cups in their hand, saying that they’re going to be trimming down and streamlining their businesses,” said Ackerman, a Democrat from New York. “It’s almost like seeing a guy show up at the soup kitchen in a high hat and tuxedo. Couldn’t you all have downgraded to first class or jet-pooled to get here? It would have at least sent the message that you do get it.”

And with that, corporate aircraft became a target in the debate over whether the government should help Big Business survive what became known as the Great Recession. The very jets that were Duncan Aviation’s bread and butter became unwanted symbols of corporate hubris.

Within 90 days, as corporate stock prices plunged and a financial crisis spread, Duncan Aviation’s monthly revenue dropped by more than 30 percent. In addition to the economic recession, some corporations didn’t want to admit they owned airplanes, let alone spend money for new avionics, renovations or even fuel for flying, CEO Aaron Hilkemann said.

“It was a difficult time,” Aaron said. “If the company hadn’t reacted correctly, it could have been lost.”

Chairman Todd Duncan said the company cut its 2009 revenue projections to $327 million from $415 million in 2008. Business aviation flying hours dropped by 40 percent within three months. Companies were cutting out discretionary spending and widening their definitions of what was discretionary.

The economic downturn hit the entire aviation business, including Duncan Aviation.

Bill

He

Prochazka was the second employee transferred to Battle Creek and spent 12 years there, ending up as general manager.

also helped get Michigan tax laws on aircraft changed through the state legislature. Then he went to Provo to get this new site started.

Time to Build

AFTER THE BIGGEST LAYOFFS in company history — with trimmed wages, suspended dividends, cancelled orders, declining revenue and losses on the books — Duncan Aviation’s leaders made a decision: Time to build.

Plans moved ahead for an expansion in Lincoln and the opening of an entirely new operation in Provo, Utah.

It might have seemed risky, but Duncan Aviation’s leaders, including then-President Aaron Hilkemann, Chairman Todd Duncan and his father, Robert, believed the economics were clear: Interest rates were low, builders were hungry for projects and the timing was right in the aviation industry for bigger facilities and geographic expansion.

The Senior Team listened to its economic consultants from New Hampshire. “They recommended that it was time, when you’re in a down cycle, to build and get ready for the up cycle,” said Vice President Steve Gade. “Aaron and Robert and others had the courage to do that, as opposed to a lot of leaders who would just say, ‘We’re going to hunker down here and not take any risks.’ ”

It worked out. Steve said the decision to build during the Great Recession was key to the company’s resurgence and advanced the process of opening a full-service maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility in Provo.

Todd Duncan said the recession and slow recovery prompted executives to look ahead 10 or more years in their planning, further into the future than past management plans.

A walk through the Senior Team’s reasoning illustrates Duncan Aviation’s ability to find the right strategy, even in difficult times.

“We have to have bigger and more hangar space,” said Robert Duncan, with son Todd. “There are fewer and fewer people that can do a quality job of maintaining those aircraft, while our market share continues to grow.”

DUNCAN AVIATION PAINTING

Duncan Aviation’s large-scale facilities in Lincoln, Battle Creek and Provo paint more than 200 aircraft a year and can offer custom designs: A Cessna 525, above; a Citation 750, below; and a Gulfstream G-IV, facing page.

Colombian-American artist Nancy Friedemann Sanchez designed a “Roses and Ravens in Flight” paint and interior theme for this Duncan Aviation-owned Citation 560XLS, executed by the company’s paint and interior artisans in Lincoln.

DUNCAN AVIATION INTERIORS

Interior renovation and custom design options include stone floors, flat-screen monitors, handcrafted upholstery and storage, sleeping facilities, work spaces and cabin dividers. When a viral pandemic appeared in 2020, Duncan Aviation developed aircraft sanitation protocols, and its upholstery department made masks for staff and area hospitals.

Landing gear assemblies undergo testing and refurbishment before installation.

‘Everybody Has an Impact’

BILL WAGNER, FORMER CHIEF PILOT for Townsend Engineering of Des Moines and a customer of Duncan Aviation since the late 1970s, once called Robert Duncan when he was stuck in Waterloo, Iowa, with a seized-up engine.

Robert turned to technician Doug Alleman, who flew to Waterloo and took a look.

“I think I know what it is,” Doug said. As the sun set, he began removing the fan section, a two-hour job. It was dark outside when he grabbed a flashlight, peered into the engine’s innards and saw something wedged between the teeth of two gears: a piece of a cotter pin that had broken off and slid inside. “It’s rare, but I saw this happen one other time,” Doug told Bill.

That little pin could have ruined the engine, a major expense, if a technician had missed it. Or another repair technician might have misdiagnosed the problem and simply overhauled the engine, another costly move. But Doug, who is now vice president of customer service for Duncan Aviation, gingerly extracted the wayward bit of metal and put the parts back together.

“What’s special about Duncan Aviation are the employees, the technicians, particularly,” Bill said. “A lot of them are old-school and actually fix things, instead of just what we call R&R, remove and replace.”

That’s a sentiment widely shared by Duncan Aviation’s customers and its Senior Team.

“The company’s strength and source of success over the years lie in committed and dedicated employees,” retired executive Jeannine Falter wrote in 2000. “Their willingness to explore new ideas and work hard, in their effort to respond to and successfully meet customer demands, has resulted in a depth and breadth of quality of products and services that set the company apart from its competitors.”

Technician Doug Alleman, above, fixed Bill Wagner’s jet. “I have more stories, but every one has a good ending because of the brilliant technicians that work on these airplanes,” Bill said.

DUNCAN AVIATION’S CULTURE

CAREER DEVELOPMENT

“It’s a tool to help people recognize where their careers are going, where they want to go, what help that they need,” Todd Duncan said. “That’s been an ideal place for us to raise a flag of opportunity or raise a flag in terms of a problem.”

TRANSPARENCY

Todd said it’s even important to share contingency plans with employees so they know what would happen if hard economic times return. “We get a lot of good feedback from people who understand what we’re planning.”

HUMAN RESOURCES

Mollie Anderson, a human resources executive under former President P.J. Morgan, started a policy that pays for employees’ advanced education. Ron Hall earned a college degree in 1997, after his children had finished college. “Mollie changed the complexion of HR,” said Ron, one of the original avionics technicians along with Phil Hartwick, Gene Bartosh, Ed Mataya, Joe Norbeck and Jim Mathe.

ETHICAL CONDUCT

In 1990 Robert Duncan and other founders of the National Aircraft Resale Association developed a code of ethics, and in 2017 the National Business Aviation Association issued a statement on ethical best practices. Duncan Aviation team members and leaders agree to a strict Code of Ethics, with an open third-party hotline to anonymously report potential violations.

“The actions of Duncan Aviation team members affect the reputation of the company,” Todd Duncan said. “And collective actions of those who work in business aviation will have a direct effect on the way our industry is perceived.”

CONNECTIONS

Duncan Aviation team members are an important part of the aviation industry, said veteran engineer Joe Huffman Sr.

“You’re exposed to the whole industry when you work here, because it’s a small industry. The FAA Forums, we’re all there and we’re all doing basically the same stuff, what everybody is required to have.” Todd Duncan said working at Duncan Aviation has been a steppingstone for careers elsewhere.

“It’s good to see that going on throughout the industry.”

MENTORING

Andy Richards worked with Tom Burt and followed him as chief operating officer in Battle Creek after Burt retired following a 40-year career.

“I learned under the best,” Andy said. “He touched a lot of lives here.

He prepared me and many, many others. I owe no small debt to him.”

PASSION

Andy Richards said team members are “passionate about their jobs, whether they’re an HR specialist or a warehouse specialist or an aircraft mechanic or a vice president. That’s the type of people we hope to attract, and certainly the people that we retain. We want people who are all in, and we aren’t willing to lower that standard.”

QUALITY

“We make sure customers understand that while they can get the same job somewhere else down the road, they can’t have the same experience,” Andy Richards said. “The experience may cost a little bit more, and we’re proud of that, and we can stand by our pricing that way.”

A UNIQUE GIFT

Bill Wagner, who served as Ray Townsend’s pilot, said he and Ray were trying to figure out something special to give Robert Duncan at the company’s 50th anniversary party, since they had been customers for about 30 years.

“Everything we thought of, they already had,” said Bill, at left.

“About that same time, I had a trip to Denver Stapleton, and on the side of the airport there is a boneyard of aircraft and parts.

I love old aviation memorabilia, and I collect old wooden props. I went over there and was looking around and here in the corner was this three-bladed DC-3 propeller.”

It reminded him of the days when a DC-3 was parked on Duncan Aviation’s ramp. “I said, ‘This is it!’ and we bought that DC-3 hub and propeller.”

Luckily the anniversary party was still a year away, so it was cleaned, polished and mounted in secret, under the supervision of Doyle Garrett. The propeller was unveiled at the party as an aviation work of art and is now on permanent display at a Duncan Aviation hangar, a symbol both of the company’s heritage and its long-lasting relationships with customers.

TODD’S CHILDHOOD

Todd fondly recalls going along with his Grandfather Donald to visit customers.

“He would just have me sit in the lobby or sit in the airplane. I would always meet the customers and hear what they were talking about doing. All of a sudden he’d come out of an office and we’d jump in the airplane again and go to the next spot.

“I got to be with his friends, travel on vacation with him and some of his friends and watch him have fun. I think that was part of my attitude of, life’s gotta be fun.”

In turn, Todd flies with his sons to meetings and to visit satellite shops.

“Todd is so much like Donald that it’s scary, and it is also cool that he is like Donald.”

— PAM ORR

Family Matters

TODD DUNCAN WAS A KID when he flew with his Grandpa Donald to Kentucky to sell a Learjet.

“This guy and his company were the ones responsible for making the hamburger buns for Wendy’s,” Todd recalled. “What a small world! I would eat at Wendy’s.”

It was a trip he would never forget.

“I got to experience what a day in the life of Donald Duncan was like,” Todd said. “He was a giant personality in my life, not just because of the company but because of his friendliness, his grandfatherliness with me.”

At the time, Duncan Aviation was a small business: A dozen or so employees, just enough profit to make ends meet, struggling to compete in the world of corporate aviation and lots of hurdles ahead.

Family ownership fit just fine. Todd grew up around his grandfather and his father, Robert, so he figured he would end up working for the company someday.

Fast forward to today, and Duncan Aviation has grown up: Big revenue, big payroll, big facilities, big reputation in the industry. Nevertheless, the Duncan family ownership remains strong, beloved not only by family members but also by the company’s growing work force.

More than a decade before he died, founder Donald Duncan turned over management to son Robert. Todd joined the company, and eventually Robert turned over the chairmanship.

Robert and Todd Duncan: Family connections from the start.

The Board of Advisors meets at Battle Creek, Michigan, in 2019. Outside members provide independent viewpoints, react to plans, track industry trends and, in general, work with inside members to watch over the company.

Sound Advice

AT THE CONFERENCE TABLE on the second floor of Duncan Aviation’s base in Battle Creek, Michigan, Aaron Hilkemann cites a new study of family-owned businesses. Without an independent advisory board, he says, three-fourths of them don’t make it past their third generation.

“Harrison, just listen up,” says Todd Duncan, chairman. The line has the ring of truth but also gets a laugh from the 13 men and one woman (Jamie Harder, chief financial officer) in the room, including Harrison, who is just starting his career at the company founded by his great-grandfather Donald.

Duncan Aviation’s Board of Advisors is holding a 2019 quarterly meeting, with its five outside advisors plus company executives, some via conference call.

Such boards have become much more common in recent years, but Robert Duncan recruited his first in 1984.

“Dad was way ahead of his time,” Todd Duncan says.

Todd runs the two-day meeting and comes prepared: He had attended a conference presented by Goldman Sachs to gather the latest thinking on the world economy.

Robert offers sage suggestions, and Harrison — a fourth-generation family member of the company — is indeed listening. He and his twin brother, P.K., vow to keep Duncan Aviation as a successful family business, and the Board of Advisors is part of that effort.

While the morning meeting is under way, a jet outside the window starts cranking up for a flight. Nobody seems to hear the twin engines’ rising whine. Eventually the aircraft taxies toward the runway and takes off, but the sound is so common to these folks that nobody turns to look.

Harrison and P.K. Duncan in 2013.

Todd Duncan in his restored Piper Cub in 2012.

‘We Get to Fly’

AS A NEW DECADE BEGINS, Duncan Aviation is looking ahead — not just a decade ahead with a formal 10-year plan, but generations ahead.

While precise predictions are impossible in the cyclical aviation business, the company’s leaders believe in a clear, long-term course: steady growth, continued careful financing, an emphasis on quality and working hard to attract the best people in dozens of specialties.

Possibilities include expansion within the company’s locations in Nebraska, Michigan and Utah and a new location, perhaps in the South. New services. Acquisitions. The international market.

But Duncan Aviation can’t control things like viruses, national and international economies, technological advances, workforce availability and competitors.

“I don’t believe aviation’s going away,” Chairman Emeritus Robert Duncan said. “I think it’ll grow at a very slow pace, and the opportunity for Duncan Aviation is to take market share.”

While the company is the largest operator in a number of aviation segments, he said, it still has room to grow, because the industry is so “spread out.”

“There’s not going to be any Facebook-type growth, but it’s a business we know,” he said. “We’re very good at it. It’s provided us with a reputation around the country and around the world that’s just fabulous.”

Because privately owned companies have limited funds, he said, “we have to make the right decisions, make the right investments. But I am optimistic. I don’t see any reason, through this next generation and beyond, that the company cannot be successful.”

Chairman Todd Duncan said the immediate plan is to increase the Provo facility’s range of services and general internal growth at the satellite shops and in Lincoln and Battle Creek.

DUNCAN AVIATION MILESTONES

1956

Donald Duncan becomes a partner in a Beechcraft distributorship in Omaha.

1962

Duncan Aviation forms Panhandle Aviation and partners with Boeing to support construction of Minuteman Missile sites throughout the Midwest.

1965 Duncan Aviation takes delivery of its first Learjet 23, Serial #13. In his lifetime, Donald sells Lucky Learjet #13 five different times.

1967

• John Ellis moves to Kalamazoo, Michigan, late in the year and opens a fixed-base operation known as Kal-Aero Inc. (later Duncan AviationBattle Creek) with four full-time and three part-time employees.

• Duncan Aviation begins air freight operations in Alaska through a contract with Alaska’s Bureau of Land Management. This work continues through 1990.

• Duncan Aviation’s Omaha facility is sold and all Duncan Aviation operations are consolidated at the Lincoln facility. Duncan Aviation becomes a Factory Authorized Learjet Service Center.

1950s

1960s

1958

Donald Duncan’s son, Robert Duncan, begins taking flying lessons. He solos at age 16 and sells his first aircraft for Duncan Aviation while still in high school.

1963

• Duncan Aviation opens a second operation at the then-new Municipal Airport in Lincoln, Nebraska. It keeps its Omaha, Nebraska, facility — for a few years, anyway.

• Duncan Aviation is named a Learjet distributor after a closed-door meeting between Donald Duncan, Bill Lear and five other financial backers.

1966

Duncan Aviation opens avionics and install shop.

1968

Robert Duncan is elected President of Duncan Aviation at age 26.

1971

Duncan Aviation recognizes a growing resale market for Learjets and begins to make the company a major player in the jet aftermarket. Donald Duncan takes risks, selling one aircraft and buying two more. At its high point in the 1970s, Duncan Aviation accumulates more than $40 million in leased and inventoried aircraft.

1978

Duncan Aviation’s Accessory Shop opens to repair Learjet accessory units.

1980

Duncan Aviation’s Accessory Shop begins overhauling its first Learjet landing gear and purchases its first Lear stab actuator test stand.

1984

• Duncan Aviation takes its first parts consignment, starting AvPac, now Duncan Aviation Parts and Rotables Sales.

• Board of Advisors is created.

1985

Duncan Aviation’s first avionics satellite location, Duncan Avionics-Houston, is opened at Hobby Airport. 1986

For the first time, Duncan Aviation’s service sales exceed its aircraft sales. 1988

Duncan Aviation starts its avionics/instrument exchange pool.

1970s 1980s

1974

FedEx’s overnight service allows Duncan Aviation to expand its avionics and instrument send-in business and improve its customers service.

1979

• Duncan Aviation continues to see aircraft sales increase until 1979, when they peaked with the sale of 71 aircraft and the leasing of 27 at a total value of $35 million. After 1979, service sales begin increasing as aircraft sales diminish.

• Duncan Aviation begins to paint aircraft exteriors with a full-service Paint Shop.

1981

• Donald Duncan dies unexpectedly at the age of 58.

• Duncan Aviation hits hard times. The economy slows and interest rates increase to a high of 21 percent. Overall profits between 1981 and 1985 are flat. Aircraft sales had accounted for 80% of revenue, but that would soon change. Robert Duncan and the other team members form strong strategies exemplifying Duncan Aviation’s unique entrepreneurial nature.

• Duncan Aviation receives Garrett AiResearch TPE331 and then AlliedSignal TFE731 Major engine authorizations.

• Duncan Aviation starts its Interior Shop.

1989

Duncan Aviation begins its in-house Calibration Lab, for tools and test sets.

1990s

1990

• Duncan Aviation partners with Sotheby’s and hosts the first auction of high-end used business aircraft at its Lincoln location. The auction sells five of 20 aircraft.

• Duncan Aviation opens a 20,000-square-foot paint facility that triples the company’s paint capacity.

1992

• Kal-Aero (later Duncan AviationBattle Creek) moves into a new hangar at the Battle Creek Airport.

• Duncan Aviation begins its aircraft acquisition service aimed at helping those who want to buy business aircraft find the right fit for their needs at a cost not tied to the purchase price of the aircraft.

1996

Aaron Hilkemann hired as Chief Operating Officer.

2000

• Duncan Aviation’s Engine Rapid Response Teams are started.

• The new 123,000-square-foot Donald Duncan Completions & Modifications hangar addition is completed at Duncan Aviation’s Lincoln facility.

2005

Duncan AviationBattle Creek receives Authorized Challenger Service Center status.

2009

Duncan Aviation has to lay off team members in March as the economic downturn that would be known as the Great Recession hits business aviation hard.

2000s

1991

Duncan Aviation introduces the Project Manager concept, giving customers a main point of contact for all work being done to their aircraft.

1995

• Duncan Aviation becomes a Factory Authorized Service Center for Falcons.

• Duncan Aviation begins performing avionics installations in many of its satellite avionics shops.

1998

Duncan Aviation purchases competitor Kal-Aero, giving the company two full-service locations: Lincoln and Battle Creek as well as an FBO facility at Kalamazoo, Michigan.

2001-2004

Duncan Aviation is recognized in Fortune Magazine’s list of the “Top 100 Companies to Work For.” The company debuted in 2001 at #62, placed #30 in 2002, #25 in 2003, and #77 in 2004.

DUNCAN AVIATION LOGO

Robert Duncan was at a consumer electronics show in Las Vegas about 30 years ago when he saw a beautiful display booth. “I thought, ‘This is fabulous. I’ve got to find out who designed this.’ ” Robert contacted the designer, Mitchell Mauk, to design Duncan Aviation’s logo and typeface. “It’s a very recognizable symbol of who we are.”

2007

• Duncan AviationBattle Creek completes a new 125,000-square-foot facility addition.

• Robert Duncan becomes Chairman Emeritus and Todd Duncan steps into the role of Chairman of Duncan Aviation.

2010

Duncan Aviation opens a maintenance facility in Provo, Utah, with plans for a ground-up maintenance, repair and overhaul facility in the future.

2012

Duncan Aviation opens a new 45,000square-foot paint facility in Lincoln.

2015

Duncan Aviation, in agreement with Honeywell Aerospace, extends its engine service authorizations designating the Lincoln location as a Honeywell AS907 (HTF 7000) Series Minor Maintenance facility.

2017

Duncan Aviation signs agreement with Honeywell Aerospace to extend its engine service authorizations in Lincoln to include TFE731 Heavy Maintenance.

2018

Duncan Aviation’s turbofan engine test cell passes all requirements and becomes fully operational.

2010s 2020

2014

Duncan Aviation adds an additional 175,000-square-foot facility in Lincoln.

2016

Duncan Aviation becomes the exclusive AOG service partner for Gogo Business Aviation, supporting Gogo customers with LRU serviceable units and spare parts strategically placed at its network of facilities and avionics satellite locations.

2019

• Duncan Aviation begins offering its Nondestructive Testing (NDT) services on-the-road.

2020

• Duncan Aviation completes work on a new, multi-hangar maintenance, modification and paint complex in Provo, Utah. This is the company’s third full-service business aircraft support facility.

• COVID-19 pandemic causes global shutdown and drastically reduced flight hours. Duncan Aviation initiates its contingency plan to weather the uncertainty.

• Aaron Hilkemann steps back and assumes role of CEO and Chairman of Board of Advisors. Jeff Lake is named President and Mike Minchow backfills him as Chief Operating Officer for Lincoln.

2021

Duncan Aviation announces hangar expansion for Lincoln in 2021-2022 and Battle Creek in 2022-2023.

LOGO REDESIGN

As the iconic Duncan Aviation logo approached 20 years old, it underwent a slight redesign. A more futuristic typeface was selected and the engines, tail, nose and wings were thickened slightly.

• The Line Services teams in Battle Creek and Kalamazoo, Michigan, join those in Lincoln and Provo as IS-BAH accredited. IS-BAH stands for International Standard for Business Aircraft Handling.

Duncan Aviation’s Provo, Utah, facility has one thing missing in Nebraska and Michigan: mountains.

“We love our business. We have fun. We get to fly.”

— ROBERT DUNCAN