Custom aircraft parts company to move to Oshkosh

Minneapolis-based D'Shannon Aviation plans to relocate its aircraft engine overhauling business to Wittman Regional Airport following AirVenture.

D'Shannon President Scott Erickson said the company will hire five or six employees initially and will work with local fabrication shops to produce parts. The company will occupy a hangar on the airport grounds until D'Shannon can develop its own facility in the aviation business park under development at Wittman.

"We want to get going there and get the momentum going," Erickson said. "I want to be an ambassador to encourage people to come here, come together. We want to bring some people (other businesses) with us to Oshkosh and start looking for bigger companies. If they want to jump on the train here, doing so early will benefit them more."

Erickson said D'Shannon has been focused on engine overhauls and aftermarket parts for Beechcraft airplanes since it acquired those assets in 2010. But he said the company intends to branch out to provide replacement parts, custom parts and performance parts for a wider variety of aircraft.

"We use technologies from the racing industry. We produced our newly-designed exhaust systems in concert with NASCAR, but we want to do everything right in Oshkosh now," Erickson said. "We'll no longer send parts to Roush (Performance) or Yates (Racing Engines). We'll do those improvements in Oshkosh, on the field. We want to be able to manufacture parts and use them to assemble a finished product without getting hung up with industry suppliers."

While D'Shannon intends to hire five or six employees to start, Erickson said the company could end up hiring 30 to 40 total employees in Oshkosh. The company will relocate to a Basler Turbo Conversions hangar at Wittman the week after AirVenture ends. While it will take some time to get the hangar prepared, operations are expected to ramp up quickly.

"We have so much work to do. But this is a custom industry," Erickson said. "We have to be small and smart."

Jeff Bollier: (920) 426-6688 or jbollier@thenorthwestern.com.