AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2019 - 95

P&E

OWNERSHIP
looked like it just rolled out of the Lock
Haven, Pennsylvania, factory 63 years
before.
A STITCH IN TIME

Out of the box
A third-generation family business keeps
GA aircraft looking good
BY DENNIS K. JOHNSON

DENNIS K. JOHNSON

MY NEED WAS SIMPLE: JUST TWO SEATS

for a 1952 Piper Super Cub restoration
project. Didn't anyone sell prefabricated
cushions for this airplane? It didn't seem
so. Except for a few black vinyl cushions
for the Piper J-3 Cub and some for homebuilts, I couldn't find any ready-made
cushions for small aircraft. Not even for
my simple 1950s airplane, in which the
cushions just slide over and snap onto a
metal frame.
I thought my only option was to use
the mildewed 1960s vinyl cushion I had
and steal a pillow off the living room
couch to fly the airplane to a custom
shop, but feared that might elicit the
wrath of my wife. Plus, I'd have to get
home, and then wait weeks for the shop
to complete its work and present me with
a custom-size bill.
Then I discovered Airtex Products
Inc., a company with a long history of
helping owners revamp their airplanes'
interiors. Airtex could work with me to
create the cushions and then ship them
for my slip-and-snap installation.

Soon I was speaking with Dodd Stretch,
the third-generation owner of Airtex, who
assured me the company had patterns for
the seats and interiors of "almost every
plane still flying out there." Almost. Mine is
a 1952 Super Cub Special, built for the U.S.
Air Force to train cadets during the Korean
War, and one of only 242 produced. The
seat is lower than normal Super Cubs to
accommodate the fat seat-type parachutes
the cadets used, so I was going to need custom work after all. "No problem, we make
adjustments to the standard patterns all the
time," said Stretch.
So, after I determined how many
phone books gave me the best view from
the cockpit, I sent Stretch my "make it four
inches thicker than normal" order. But
since I'm lucky to live within an hour's
drive of Airtex, I decided to deliver my
front seat frame so they could fit it precisely. A few weeks later, I went to pick
up my custom seat and the rear cushions.
I bolted in the seat and snapped on the rear
cushions back at my hangar. The interior
was finished and my restored airplane

Hmm, parachute tester. Now that's a career
that could come to a sudden conclusion
if everything doesn't go just right. How
about a career in sewing? I like to imagine Albert Stretch was thinking this way in
1949 when he left a job testing parachutes
for the Switlik Parachute Company and
started sewing canvas items such as propeller and engine covers for the aircraft
industry. Thanks to the postwar boom in
general aviation, Albert was soon running
a thriving business. At first the work was
largely sewing fabric envelopes to re-cover

"We have the
capability to produce
interiors for just about
every aircraft built
on a production line.
Everything is made
to order."
-Dodd Stretch

airplane wings and fuselages, but as metalskin aircraft began to dominate the general
aviation market, the business drifted into
creating custom upholstery and interiors
that pilots could install themselves. Today,
the family business is still humming, with
Albert's grandson, Dodd Stretch, leading a team of 20 craftsmen at Airtex in
Fallsington, Pennsylvania.
Business experts often talk about "corporate memory"-generally the body of
knowledge accumulated over the years-
and at Airtex that's really important. In
addition to the accumulated skills of its
craftsmen, many of whom have worked
there for decades, and 70 years of experience with hundreds of aircraft types,
important physical assets hang row
upon row down the center of the shop,
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AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2019

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