The buzz about new wings for the Charlotte Hornets.

• Position: As customers of Piedmont Aviation Services Inc.

It never really vanished, but until the Charlotte Hornets became its star customer this spring a historic name in Tar Heel business looked as if it would fade into the wild blue yonder. But now Piedmont Aviation Services Inc., a surviving fragment of Piedmont Airlines, has a new FAA airline license, a high-profile customer in the Queen City's NBA team and high hopes.

The license granted in March permits the Winston-Salem-based company, which projects $85 million in revenues this year, to fly large airliners for charter customers such as the Hornets. Piedmont officials say that's just the beginning. "We wouldn't have undertaken this for just one airplane," Executive Vice President Rob Wells says. "We plan to grow .the business and see ourselves operating five to 10 airplanes like the Hornets'."

Wells and Hornets executives caution the nostalgic not to expect a rebirth of the Piedmont Airlines that USAir swallowed in 1987. USAir owns the Piedmont Airlines name and flies it on one of its wholly owned commuter airlines.

The acquisition included a non-airline subsidiary, and in 1992, trailing contrails of red ink, USAir sold the division to private investors. That became Piedmont Aviation Services. Today, the 640-employee company performs largely behind-the-scenes aviation functions such as airplane sales, airline maintenance in Winston-Salem and airport support operations in Raleigh, Monroe, Greensboro, Winston-Salem and Norfolk and Roanoke, Va.

Piedmont Aviation is also the largest corporate charter operation in the Southeast, with 100 pilots and 33 airplanes such as sleek Learjets and CitationJets. They ferry executives to destinations such Bentonville, Ark., which has Wal-Mart's headquarters but no airline service.

A year ago, Wells says, word spread that Hornets owner George Shinn was dissatisfied with the Arizona company that operated the team's customized, 44-seat Boeing 737-200. "We put two and two together and asked them for the business," Wells says.

When the Hornets aren't using the plane, Piedmont will charter it for other customers and split the revenues with the Hornets, team spokesman Keith Krohler says. Adds Wells, "Basketball is a business, and this is a business tool, not a royal barge."

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