The next time you login to the Wi-Fi network on an airplane, there’s a good chance that a Southern Indiana company played a role in that connection.
That’s because one of the biggest manufacturers of Wi-Fi stands, which allow the workers access to the crown of the plane to perform routine maintenance on the networks is based out of Elizabeth, Indiana.
“We keep thinking that, ‘Well, the sales of this stand are about done,’ but every other day, it seems like we're getting another call from somebody else that's interested in the product,” said Coy Stepro, general manager at Simpson Aerospace Services (SAS-Inc.).
Simpson Aerospace Services is an offshoot of Simpson Alloy Services. It should be noted that both businesses run under the DBA of S.A.S.-Inc.
The company makes several aircraft maintenance stands that are used in hangars in major airports in the U.S. and beyond. It have a client list of close to 20 airlines, as well as FedEx and UPS — and their most popular item is by far the Wi-Fi stands. The company made its first one in 2019 after a request from its longest running customer, Delta Airlines. When COVID hit in 2020 and commercial flying came to a crawl/halt, the company pivoted to working on equipment at U.S. Air Force bases.
Since 2022, though, the phone keeps ringing.
The company had a 30% increase in sales for maintenance stands last year — and have already surpassed last year's total sales. It expects to have a 40% increase in sales this year.
“There’s a couple of different airlines now that are deeming that you have Wi-Fi on all flights. So when you get on a plane and you fly somewhere and you don’t have Wi-Fi, you're not a very happy customer, so it’s really important to them to keep this operational,” said Amber Stepro, Coy’s wife and the business manager at SAS-Inc. “At the same time, it’s very high risk to get on the crown of the airplane and work on it, so [airlines] have to … look out for the safety of their employees.”
Coy Stepro said that the technology they came up with that provides the safety needed for workers to be on the main working platform on top of the fuselage — without fear of falling off it — came from working on a different project at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma. The design also allows airlines to spend less time with less equipment.
“It’s just that ability to have taken our experience from all kinds of different industries and be able to take all that [and] put it together,” said Coy Stepro, who joined SAS-Inc. in 2006 after spending seven years at the Ford Assembly Plant in Louisville.
At the beginning
Simpson Aerospace Services came as a result of Simpson Alloy Services, building a new 20,000-square-foot shop facility in 2016 at its location in Elizabeth, Indiana, after outgrowing its original space.
Shortly thereafter, a now-defunct aviation company based out of Louisville, DAE Industries, approached Simpson about doing some subcontract work for them to assemble aircraft maintenance stands, which they did for about two years.
“Our shop is very well equipped with fabrication in general … We were very equipped and capable to fabricate and build anything anyone might need,” Amber Stepro said. “That is sort of our niche: That we are a one-stop job shop.”
During that time, SAS-Inc. built a tail dock — which is built for the airplane’s tail — for Hawaiian Airlines. The dock had to be installed in the airline company’s hangar in Hawaii, giving them a taste of what would become a normal mission for the team.
While SAS-Inc. worked as subcontractors, DAE would go through a string of buyouts. The last owner was not interested in that line of work, allowing Simpson an easy entry into the market.
Before the induction into the world of aircraft maintenance stands, SAS-Inc. primarily did work in the heat treatment industry where they would mostly go on-site to melt down aluminum or other related tasks — with little shop work at its facility. The equipment needed for that vertical matched well to manufacture the stands.
The company recently broke ground on a second 12,000-square-foot shop facility, which will be devoted mostly to material processing — allowing the current building to be used primarily for space to weld and assemble the stands.
The Stepros mentioned that they recently invested in a new “tube laser machine” that has the ability to be 20% faster than a bandsaw operator, based on a 3D model that has been implemented into the machine through specialized software.
Dean Simpson, Amber’s father and Coy’s father-in-law, started Simpson Alloy Services in 1997 as an income source while his farming operation got underway. The family still runs the 5,000-acre farm under the leadership of Amber’s brother, Chad Simpson. The family also runs and owns Simpson Agri Trucking.
Kathy Simpson, Dean’s wife and Amber’s mother, is the company’s majority owner. The entire company has 13 full-time employees, most of whom are based in the Southern Indiana facility, toggling between the alloy and aerospace sides of the business. Amber said the company plans to add four to five more to its headcount within the next six months.
Going forward, the SAS-Inc. team hopes to develop more standard maintenance stands before “we dive into another arena,” in Coy’s words. The company is also working on its overall brand awareness. This September, team members will be attending their first aircraft equipment trade show in Las Vegas.
“There are so many airlines out there that we’re still trying to reach,” Amber said. “Many of them we’re in talks with at the moment, but it’s a difficult task [to find] the right people at all these different airlines.”
