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Navion Customs LLC at Chino Airport is one of approximately 3,700 businesses in the United States licensed by the Federal Aviation Administration to repair and restore airplanes.
It’s also one of the few – and maybe the only – domestic operation that works exclusively on one plane: the single-engine, four-seat Navion aircraft designed and built by North American Aviation shortly after World War II.
“I don’t know of any other maintenance-restoration business that only works on one aircraft,” said Stephen Stinis, co-founder and co-owner of Navion Customs. “Most of them are general aviation.”
Stinis, 51, spoke with IE Business Daily about how he latched onto Navion planes, why they remain popular nearly 80 years after they went on the market and why maintaining Navion Customs is getting more and more difficult.
Q: Can you talk about what Navion does, and how it operates?
A: We usually have three projects, minimum, that we’re working on at one time, and we have 30 aircraft that we maintain the year round. We also have special projects, and we do insurance-related repairs, but most of that has dried up since COVID. Most of the aircraft are being totaled, unfortunately. We’re always bidding for work.
Q: You work exclusively with Navion, which was a single-engine plane designed and built at the end of World War II. They were introduced in 1948. What is special about that aircraft?
A: They were liaison aircraft, mostly for generals. They were used mostly to move generals from place to place. They were also used, a little bit, for reconnaissance, and search-and-rescue. For what they did, they were great airplanes. But they were never used in combat.
Q: How did your company get started?
A: We started in 2009. I was familiar with Navion because it ran in my family. My uncle owned one, and I worked on it when I was younger. I bought one because I wanted to use it for sky typing, but that didn’t work out. But Navion began after I met my business partner, Ryan Douthitt, at a convention. We got the business started from there.
Q: Are there are enough (Navion planes) that you can make a living restoring and maintaining them?
A: Yes. There are about 400 of them still active. I knew there was a market for restoring them. My uncle had one, and my cousin and I restored. Navion has a real following in the airplane industry. We won some awards at the first airshow we entered, which helped get our name out.
Q: Who is your competition? Are there other companies that work exclusively with Navion?
A: There was a guy up in Van Nuys, Matt Jackson, who started a Navion engine conversion business. He would take this subtle aircraft and turn it into a fire-breathing dragon by putting a bigger engine on it, which is what we do now. He became our look-up-to guy.
Q: Can you describe a typical plane that you work on?
A: They’re usually family heirlooms that get passed down to the next generation, but they’re 80 years old. They need work.
Q: Typically, what kind of repairs do you deal with?
A: It can be a lot of things. Maybe the landing gear is isn’t working, or maybe they want a modern engine that can be serviced easily. Sometimes the owner wants something difficult. One plane that we have now, the owner wants us to use all original parts. That won’t be easy.
Q: It seems like that would be like trying to find parts for a 1940’s car.
A: That’s correct. You have to design the parts, then make them if you can’t find the original parts. There are certain things you can’t put back into the plane, because the plane is too old. So you have to become modern.
Q: How do you find parts?
A: We find derelict airplanes, some of which haven’t been touched for 20 or 30 years. They’ve been passed down from generation to generation, but they’ve reached a generation that doesn’t fly the plane, so they’re looking to sell it. Not all parts are transferrable, because of some of them are corroded or damaged. You just get all of the parts you can.
Q: Are there planes that can’t be restored?
A: Yes, there are. We turn down a lot of aircraft. Sometimes the owner believes they can restore the plane for pennies on the dollar. The result is their airplane rots. They also think they should pay the original price for parts.
Q: How much does it usually cost to restore a plane?
A: In 2012, we had a customer who spent more than $300,000 for a complete restoration. Today, a restoration from-the-ground-up on that plane would probably cost double that, and that’s because the cost of parts has skyrocketed. The labor on that kind of project has changed, but not that much.
Q: When you’re done it’s nothing like the original engine.
A: Thats’s right. It goes from 185 horsepower to 300 horsepower, which is a lot. It’s a 200 mph airplane.
Q: Typically, how much labor do you put into a project?
A: About 3,000 man hours. But there’s a hidden cost to these planes, and that is that a lot of them have gone 30 or 40 years without any maintenance. That makes them a lot more expensive to repair.
Q: Why does the Navion plane remain popular, and who buys them?
A: It can carry a lot of fuel, it’s very long range, a good cross-country plane. It has four seats, so it’s good if you want take your family somewhere, and it’s stable. As for who buys them, we get a lot former military and airline pilots. They’re good planes, and they’re easy to fly.
Q: It sounds like you have this market to yourself.
A: Pretty much. There used to be Navion mechanics, but they’re all retired. We’re the last Navion specialist and that’s difficult in one way. It’s hard to find mechanics with the passion to do this kind of restoration. Working on Navion planes isn’t that different from working on a modern plane, because we put so many modern parts into them.
Q: Will the Navion market ever go away?
A: I don’t think so. I think our work will become more specialized. But our economies of scale are getting more expensive, so fewer people will be involved in the business.
Q: Can you talk about Skytypers Inc. the other aviation business you own?
A: We’re the only company in the world that does typing, instead of writing. Typing requires at least five aircraft. We do about 30 events a year and gross about $2 million.
Q: Navion does all of their maintenance?
A: Yes. Skytypers is based in Las Vegas. We also have fleets in New York and North Carolina. It’s separate from Navion.
Q: Are the Trump Administration’s proposed tariffs a potential threat to your businesses?
A: They have to be. We’re getting hit right now. There are companies that are being bought out. Almost all of the mom-and-pop places where we used to buy parts have been consolidated. The whole industry is being redefined.
Q: What about COVID?
A: When it started our business actually went up. People weren’t going to work, they had some money to spend, so they decided to work on their Navion. Our business boomed, but I couldn’t handle the work because I couldn’t get parts. It was good and bad, because we had customers who wanted to get a restoration, but they wanted this and that, and I couldn’t produce it. I couldn’t get the labor – people were afraid they might get sick if they came to work – and I couldn’t get the parts.
Q: What’s the quickest you’ve ever completed a project?
A: About 18 months. The average is three to five years.
Q: What is the hardest part of keeping the business afloat?
A: Our overhead is through the roof. Four years ago a Navion cost $60,000. Today it’s double that. The insurance agencies have doubled their rates. Not many people do full-on restorations anymore, just engine overhauls. A full restoration is about $350,000, an engine restoration is about one-third of that. Finding talent is also a problem.
Q: How so?
A: This generation isn’t being taught to do mechanical things anymore. They grew up with laptops, video games and cars that operate on batteries. If you’re trying to modernize the aircraft you can bring those people in because they have a feel for the technology. But there’s still a disconnect there.
Q: That’s seems like it could be a difficult obstacle to overcome. Can you speculate on what all of that mean for Navion’s future?
A: I hope we can keep doing it, and I think we will. The economy could be a problem, and there are rising costs associated with the airport. A lot of factors come into play. What I need is more people who need restorations and are willing to pay for them, and that could be tough. But we’re here to stay.
