A new Micco Aircraft Co. is back in business and there are some familiar faces at the new company.
Dewitt Beckett, who ran the original Micco Aircraft in Florida from 1996 to 2002, has entered into an agreement to acquire the type certificate, tooling, fixtures and inventory for the Micco SP26 aerobatic sport aircraft. The deal is expected to close sometime this month, according to Beckett.
New production facilities are being established at Frank Phillips Field (BVO) in Bartlesville, Okla., at the old Phillips 66 Aviation hangar.
Several factors worked to convince Beckett to set up his new company in Oklahoma, including “economic benefits” and a skilled workforce, he said.
The new company’s workforce also will have some familiar faces as former Micco employees from the Ft. Pierce, Fla., area are expected to relocate to Oklahoma, according to Beckett.
Beckett was hired by the chief of the Seminole tribe, James Billie, in 1996 to rework the two-seat Meyers 145 and four-seat 200 into the Micco aerobatic planes. Beckett took the planes through certification and into production in Ft. Pierce. In 2002, the tribe “decided to do something different,” according to Beckett, so the company was sold to Wadi Rahim, who had also bought the assets of Lake Aircraft. Rahim’s company closed its doors in 2004 and Micco Aircraft went back to the tribe, after which Aero Acquisitions, an Oklahoma company, acquired it. Beckett is now finalizing the deal with that company to buy the Micco assets.
Once the type certificate is in his hands, the new Micco Aircraft executive will work on ramping up production of the SP26 — “that’s where the demand is” — and earning an FAA Production Certificate. “We have all the manuals and personnel in place to accomplish that,” Beckett said.
If all goes well, first deliveries are anticipated in the first quarter of 2007.
Besides revitalizing the Micco SP26, Beckett also will import Tecnam Light Sport Aircraft, including the Sierra, Golf, Bravo and Echo, and will be responsible for sales and distribution in Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri and Kansas.
The facility also will be a Rotax service center. He hopes to eventually create an “aviation center” at the Bartlesville airport complete with manufacturing, instruction, service, sales and more.
“My intent is to bring back to aviation something that has been missing for a long time — the social atmosphere,” he said. “We think people need a place to come and hang out at the airport.”
He plans monthly BBQ fly-ins, as well as seminars on everything from Sport Pilot to Rotax operations. “We expect to have ultralights, experimentals and LSAs flying in here,” he said. “We want to make Bartlesville Airport an aviation hub in northeast Oklahoma.”
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