Like many aviation aficionados, Mike Schweiss went to a theater in 2016 to see “Sully,” the movie starring Tom Hanks as Chesley Sullenberger, captain of US Airways Flight 1549, which ditched in the Hudson River in 2009 after both engines were struck by a flock of birds.
During the movie Mike noticed something that most people in the theater probably didn’t: A Schweiss hangar door.
“In the movie, they’re opening our door up and taking the plane out,” he recalls. “That was kind of cool. I saw that door and I came flying out of my chair, popcorn going everywhere, because I was so excited.”
It’s not the first time Fairfax, Minnesota-based Schweiss Doors has captured a lot of attention.
The company, founded in 1980, has built doors for the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis, Red Bull headquarters, Yankee Stadium, the new Columbus, Ohio, soccer stadium, Cycle City in Hawaii, and the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Shanghai. The largest is a 90-foot-wide by 60-foot-tall door for a rocket assembly building in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
And, of course, Schweiss builds doors for airplane hangars.
Aviation makes up about 45% of the company’s business, according to Mike, who designed his first door after getting the idea at a wedding.
“A friend commented, ‘Mike, you build lots of different things. Why not a door that folds up?’ Ironically, that very person died of a heart attack that same evening. But his idea didn’t.”
The first Schweiss door was a 12 foot x 12 foot bifold door installed on a county highway shed.
“The door is still in operation today,” Mike says proudly.
Business has been steadily increasing, while the company continues to innovate.
“We are always trying to build a better mouse trap,” Mike notes. “A door’s a door, but we have been asked to do many different things. The philosophy of our company is we never like to say no.”
The latest innovation from Schweiss Doors is a cordless drill-operated hydraulic pump that will open and close a door up to 24 by 12 feet with any cordless drill or by hand.
Mike is proud of the fact that his company offers two styles of doors — one-piece hydraulic doors and lift strap bifold doors.
“We’ve got the Cadillac of doors,” he says.
While other companies use cables, Mike went a different way, designing doors with straps. He even got a patent on the straps in 1998.
“It’s the modern way of doing it,” he says, adding, “we got rid of all cables on our doors.”
A burgeoning market for the company is retrofit straps, which convert existing doors from cables to straps, he says.
“That’s been a market in itself,” he adds.
“I always tell people that I can still make you a cable door. I could sell you a cable door, and I could sell you a strap door, and I guarantee you, the third door you’d buy would definitely be a strap. Once you go strap, you never go back.”
Schweiss Doors are sold all over the world, with a majority of the company’s customers in the United States.
The company will install the doors, but also has a kit for customers who are “on a budget and want to save money,” he says.
“We have install crews that’ll go out and help install the customer’s door, or we’ll send a supervisor out, or they can have their local contractor put it in,” he says.
Happy customers are the company’s best marketing tool.
“I have one dealer who has bought $22 million worth of doors in his time with me, so I think he believes in our company a little bit,” Mike says wryly.
But it’s more likely that an aircraft owner will install a Schweiss door, and then a neighbor sees it and they buy one “and it goes on and on,” he continues.
The strategy is working.
In March 2023, the company opened a new manufacturing facility. While the new building supports additional manufacturing, it also provides a showcase for the company’s new “free-standing” hydraulic door.
Because of his work in the aviation industry, Mike will be inducted into the Minnesota Aviation Hall of Fame at a ceremony April 20, 2024, along with the rest of the Class of 2024.
“This is truly an unexpected and humbling honor,” he says. “The great state of Minnesota is home to so many aviation pioneers and industry leaders. To be included among these folks means more to me than I can say. This is the kind of honor that makes all of us at Schweiss get to the office and work a little bit harder to make sure we’re building the most reliable bifold and hydraulic doors on the market.”
For more information: Bifold.com
I’m here to tell ya’ll that I agree with Mike. I bought a 44′ by 12′ strap lift auto-lock door in 2002 for my hangar in Wisconsin. It had a minor problem in the beginning; Schweiss immediately took care of it. It’s been operating trouble free ever since and it’s pretty cool to be able to open it with a remote opener. I recommend their doors to anyone who asks. We have one of their very early doors on the field and it, too, is still operating fine.