Smaller Operators Continue to Be Snatched Up in General Aviation Game

Consolidated Fuel Systems has acquired Great Planes Fuel Metering, bringing them under the banner of Tempest Aero Group.

Great Planes Fuel Metering began in 2007, when Dave Dewell began a firm to overhaul fuel pumps and their associated systems, with particular skill in caring for Continental pieces. Consolidated Fuel Systems has been in the same biz since 2015, overhauling fuel pumps and injectors, too. Great Planes is a Class 1 Repair Station authorized to repair and overhaul Lear-Romec pumps and Conti injection systems, which now gets folded into the Consolidated family.

"Great Planes has a long-standing reputation for providing high-quality overhauled fuel systems and customer support that exceeds customer expectations" said John Herman, Vice President of Sales & Marketing for Tempest Aero Group. "We recognize the responsibility we have undertaken and the trust that Dave has placed in our team to continue the legacy business he has built.”

Their siblings now include Marvel-Schebler Carburetors, Precision Airmotive, Alcor, Stratus Tool Technologies, and Tempest itself. Perhaps more confusingly, the Tempest Aero Group is part of the General Aviation Group of Vance Street Capital, a brand that has added some smaller aviation companies to its collection in recent years too. The Vance Street family includes Jet Parts Engineering, Spectra A&D Holdings, McFarlane Aviation, and the Tempest Group, of course. It's a mess, from the outside, but it just goes to show that there just ain't much money in plane parts like there used to be. A shrinking pilot base (relative to the population at least), increasingly impoverished low-timers unable to buy their own type certificated aircraft, and an anemic market for 60-year-old designs have all combined to make smaller aircraft parts manufacturers and easy sale in the world of finance.

FMI: www.consolidatedfuelsystems.com