Avionics News November 2014 - 49

The team at Century Flight Systems includes (from left) Daryl Shoemaker (QA manager); Mike Underwood (production manager); Matt Greer (aircraft
service manager); Bill Eubanks (president); Lottie Eubanks (owner); and Bill Peterson (chief inspector).

Administration. The Baker Hotel, built to take advantage
of the waters, was once a top luxury resort in the U.S.
The hotel closed in the 1970s, but plans call for the city
to fund a renovation.
Mineral Wells has an aviation history as well as
the location of Fort Wolters. The Vietnam Veterans
Memorial Wall, a half-scale replica of the Vietnam
Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C., comes
on the heels of the Camp Holloway Memorial Wall,
a meditation garden and a Huey helicopter mounted
high above the memorial garden. Mineral Wells and
helicopter flying are forever connected, as the vast
majority of the helicopter pilots who flew in Vietnam
were trained at Fort Wolters.
It is in this environment that his wife, Lottie,
purchased Century Flight Systems. At the time, EDO
Corp. had the building where Century is currently
located. "They had to divest three plants in the late
1970s: a gyro instrument company in Wichita, a radio
plant in New Jersey and the autopilots in Mineral
Wells," Eubanks said. He was working for North
American Phillips at the time; soon he left that position
to work at Century full time and eventually became its
president.
The interest in purchasing Century Flight Systems
was not so much to be part of the aviation industry as
it was to provide jobs for Mineral Wells. "We stuck
with autopilots as our main line, but we also had a
non-glass type HSI," Eubanks said. "As the glass
instruments started to take precedence, HSI sales
started to go down, and the autopilots stayed. We have
so many STCs and we're capable of putting stuff in
aircraft where new autopilots have to get the STCs,
so we've stayed in the autopilot portion fairly well."

Century has since launched three new autopilots.
Although Lottie owns Century Flight Systems,
Bill is its face. The couple is united on one particular
philosophy. "We're local people," Bill Eubanks said.
"We wanted to stay local and at home, and that reflected
in our management style - keep the company local and
not try to expand into a large company." He said he
wanted to keep Century "at a reasonable size" but still
be able to service aircraft owners worldwide. What's
more, Bill and Lottie have long been interested in their
employees as people. "Our management philosophy
was to provide a job as long as an employee wanted it
and was producing while we provided a good quality
product," he said.
Since Century Flight Systems is based at the airport,
aircraft owners often fly in to get an autopilot fixed.
"We still do repairs on all the autopilots we've ever
built," he said. This includes the Century I, the oldest
autopilot, now approximately 60 years old. "It's
surprising to us that autopilot has stayed around for such
a long time," he noted.
Lottie has recently returned to Century from her other
businesses, and when Century's accountant retired,
Lottie took over that work. As for the future, Bill
Eubanks said, "We hope to keep the company going.
We've had great change over the past few years with
avionics, and we try to keep up with the changes."
It's not always easy for a small company that is
privately owned. "It's a tough hold to keep up with big
companies," he added. "So far we are keeping up and
we're doing a fair job." q
To learn more about Century Flight Systems, visit
www.centuryflight.com.
avionics news

november

2014

http://www.centuryflight.com

Avionics News November 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Avionics News November 2014