Well-traveled Stanley Poised for Takeoff.

• Author: ANDERSEN, KRISTIN
• Position: Stanley Aviation Corp. wins Boeing contract - Brief Article

Parts manufactured by Aurora-based Stanley Aviation have gone to the moon, but you usually find them in aircraft flying closer to home.

The company designs and manufactures aircraft couplings, tube assemblies and duct. It also builds ground support equipment -- towbars and engine handlers.

Started after World War II by an aviation pioneer, the late Robert M. Stanley, the company has been in Colorado since 1954, but is little known beyond its own industry.

Its business, according to Ken Greene, president and CEO since 1993, is evenly split between commercial and military customers. Current projects range from Boeing's X-32 joint Strike Fighter to Gulfstream Aerospace Corp.'s G-IV and G-V corporate jets.

"In our 52-year history, you could almost say we've been in just about every commercial aircraft there is," Greene said. This year the company landed its biggest contract ever -- to build duct and tube assemblies for the Boeing C-17 Globemaster III, the Air Force's large troop and tank carrier.

The contract is worth about $100 million over eight years, Greene said.

Stanley's association with the C-17 actually goes back to 1988, when it supplied metal seal couplings for what was then a McDonnell Douglas project. But the latest contract is an "enormous" opportunity for the company, Greene said. Manufacturers such as Boeing are "... beginning to allow their supply base to build subcomponents that had traditionally been built within the walls of the air framers," he said. "We are perceived as one of their key suppliers for those kind of off-load activities."

The C-17...