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T

here are giant corporate MROs, and then there’s Penn Yan Aero. Since the day Harold

“the Eagle” Middlebrook established it in 1945, Penn Yan Aero has been based in a hilltop airstrip hangar in Penn Yan, New York. Penn Yan is short for

“Pennsylvania Yankee;” a reference to the mix of Pennsylvanians and Yankees who founded this village in 1833. It is in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York, known for its vineyards and stunning scenery. From 1945 until the present, Penn

Yan Aero has focused on making its aviation engine customers “so happy and satisfied that they will recommend us to their family and friends,” says Bill Middlebrook. He is Harold’s grandson and current president and CEO of the company. “Although we have expanded our facilities over the years – we now employ 40 to 50 people, depending on the workload – our business ethic is unchanged,” he explains. “We don’t want to be the biggest. We just want to be the best.”

Born to Fly...and Repair

Harold Middlebrook was born in 1917 in Middlesex, New York. He fell in love with flying at a young age, acquiring his pilot’s license and an Emsco prop plane while still in his teens. During World War II,

Middlebrook trained Army Air Corps pilots in Stearmans. After the war, he started Penn Yan Aero. The impulse to start the company

was accidental. Harold Middlebrook had a friend, a Rochester businessman who would fly down to the Penn Yan region on weekends. “Harold was really, really good

at fixing airplane engines,” says Bill Middlebrook. “Whenever this businessman had a problem, he’d bring his plane to Harold to repair it. Soon other people in the area started bringing in their engines for work. Before he knew it, Harold had established an engine MRO. He didn’t mean to; he just did.” Word of mouth continues to

drive Penn Yan Aero’s business. There has been no marketing

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