by Sean Kearns

Two scaled-down model aircraft are mere specks in the spacious lobby of Advanced Aerodynamics & Structures Inc. A slightly curved staircase, the kind that a debutante would descend, leads to the large office where Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Carl L. Chen works at his black marble and redwood desk.

Chen is an engineer who grew weary of satellite-making, but who has no real knowledge of aircraft-making. He's found excitement in running and developing AASI, a start-up airplane manufacturing company in Long Beach, California. "I think it is different from all the other things I did before," said Chen, 55, a resident of Palos Verdes. "There's a lot of new stuff every day.

"I don't want to do the same thing three times, twice is OK."

Chen has taken AASI on a decade-long journey from an idea presented to him for a high-performance, inexpensive business aircraft to a company preparing to begin production.

Along the way, he's led a certification effort for one airplane, cut his company back to three people when money from Asia dried up, and rebounded the company with a $34 million gross in an initial public offering. He also had to manage a year-long delay in the program because of a number of setbacks that included a lengthy development time for component parts.

Next to aerospace giant and Long Beach Airport mainstay Boeing Co., AASI is the other aircraft manufacturing plant at Long Beach Airport. But AASI aircraft aren't large, multimillion-dollar jets.

AASI is in the flight test and Federal Aviation Administration certification phase with its $1.4 million Jetcruzer 500, a six-person propjet. To date, AASI has 182 orders for a backlog that exceeds $225 million.

In late 1999, there were 85 employees at AASI and 15 consultants. Chen said he expects the number to grow to between 400 and 500 when peak production is reached in 2001.

The number of workers could climb to more than 1,000 if plans proceed accordingly for a jet version of the 500 called the Stratocruzer 1250. In five years, with both the Jetcruzer and the $3.4 million Stratocruzer, Chen sees AASI growing to a $600 million to $700 million company.

Chen was first handed the Jetcruzer concept in 1989. By then, he had left his 15-year job at Hughes Aircraft Co. to focus his time on Sida Corp., a high-technology trading firm he formed with two partners that deals with Taiwan and China. Taiwan was booming in the late 1980s and entrepreneurs came to Sida and Chen looking for investors.

Chen was born in Southern China in 1945. In 1949, his family fled China for Taiwan to escape the Communist rule of Mao Zedong. He grew up in Taiwan and graduated from National Taiwan University. In 1968, Chen came to the United States on a fellowship to West Virginia University.

"I had $300 in my pocket," he said with a grin.

He graduated with a master's degree in aerospace engineering from WVU in 1969 and then earned a master's degree in control engineering from UCLA. In 1972, he landed a job with Hughes in its satellite-manufacturing business.

By 1989, Chen faced intellectual and business boredom that only a patent holder or a Caltech Ph.D. or Harvard Business School graduate could appreciate. Chen is all three.

So in 1990 he helped start AASI. "I knew a little bit about airplanes, but I didn't know much," Chen said.

He committed only part of his time to AASI at first. But by 1993, Chen saw a bigger potential at AASI than Sida. He sold his interest in Sida and devoted himself full time to AASI.

AASI spent $23 million for the FAA to certify its first aircraft model, the Jetcruzer 450, in 1994. But the Asian recession caused investment dollars along the Pacific Rim to dry up. To survive, Chen cut AASI's staff to three people.

"We always think we can make it," Chen said. "It's a good product."

Wall Street caught on in 1996. The initial public offering put AASI back on its feet. The company decided to improve the Jetcruzer 450 and went ahead with plans for the Jetcruzer 500.

In November 1998, AASI moved into a new, 200,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility at Long Beach Airport with manufacturing space for the Jetcruzer 500 and the Stratocruzer 1250.

With a new autoclave—the kiln needed to fabricate composite structures—AASI will not only have the ability to build its own aircraft but also composite structures for military and NASA programs.

Activity at AASI should keep Chen more than busy. "If there's a synergy, then we'll do it," Chen said. "That will help us if we can do long-term contract work with the military and satellite business."

Reprinted courtesy of the Long Beach (Calif.) Press-Telegram.