PROFILE
He was building up wire harnesses, working with the sheet metal mechanics, and doing final system checkout tests. Never one to sit still, Wilken expanded his knowledge
by working with the engineering department. The avionics manager at the time was selling more complex packages. Elliott was getting into TCAS, FMS, EFIS and other complex systems, and Wilken was doing more engineering and fabricating. He also started to get more involved in the certification side of things, working with the FAA in Chicago for STC approvals. He also participated in certification flight tests and conformity checks with the FAA.
AVIONICS MANAGER Then, in 1996, the avionics manager at Elliott moved to the sales side, and Wilken was promoted to avionics manager. “I was a hands-on manager,” Wilken shares. “I liked being out on the floor helping instead of sitting at a desk. I wanted to be the first one in and the last one out.” In the late 1990s, Elliott was expanding and performing offsite mods for King Airs for Beechraft (Raytheon at the time). If someone bought a King Air and wanted options that Beechcraft didn’t offer, they sent the work to offsite modification centers like Elliott. Wilken oversaw the modifications. “We did well with that program,” Wilken says. “We made sure the airplanes were done and waiting for delivery a day or two before the scheduled delivery days. The day of delivery, we wanted to maybe wipe a smudge or two from the airplane, not be arms and legs trying to finish the project.”
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GROWTH AT ELLIOTT In 1993, Herb Elliott’s son Wynn assumed the company helm. In 1995, the company changed its name to Elliott Aviation to better reflect the full scope of services it provided. One of the things Wynn did in those early years at the helm was to get the company doing active noise cancellation (ANC) installs in turboprops. They did a lot of ANC installs over the next years, and when Beechcraft decided to offer ANC as an option in the late 90’s, all the ANC installations were done at Elliott Aviation. “All King Air 350s came here for active noise cancellation installations for a two-year time frame,” Wilken says. “They would sometimes fly in two or three at a time from Wichita. We would jokingly refer to them as ‘the green angels,’ because they were primer green. That business allowed us to grow significantly. We grew from five installers in 1996 to 20 installers in 2000.” Elliott Aviation also started doing more STCs and Wilken
got involved in the process. They worked with avionics manufacturers during product development and would start to develop STCs for those new products before they were released. STCs were often available shortly after a new product was released. “Having early STC approvals for new products created a lot of business for us. As we developed more STCs, the process fed upon itself and continued to give us more and more business,” Wilken shares.
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