The aircraft modification business represents American enterprise at its best–dozens of small companies each turning out a variety of unique products aimed at what traditionally appears to be a narrow segment of the worldwide marketplace. Modification specialists are inventors–critical thinkers and dreamers who often see solutions to problems the rest of us assumed were unfixable. And despite the years of engineering energy and time, often at the hands of a single individual with an idea, many of the big modification shops like Robertson, Astec and Branson have disappeared over the past decade.
One well kept secret in the modification business is privately held Sierra Industries of Uvalde, Texas, a town about 90 mi southwest of San Antonio. Sierra president Mark Huffstutler said that thanks to Sierra’s acquisition over the years of Robertson, Astec and Branson, combined with Sierra’s own in-house engineering work, “Sierra is now the largest holder of recurring STCs in the world, with about 300.” He began his business with his dad in 1983 when the small FBO they owned in Uvalde performed their first modification to remove the gear doors on early Cessna 210s.
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