That’s Kranston Kincaid on camera at Sun ‘n Fun last March. Last year when we reported on his company, Superior Aircraft Components, which makes custom instrument panels (don’t confuse it with Superior Air Parts—he’s tired of fielding calls about engine matters), Kranston captured my attention for a few reasons. At the time, the industry was struggling—badly—with supply troubles. It hit the avionics retrofit market especially hard because shops couldn’t get high-priced equipment when they needed it, while shop floor time was backing up longer than anyone imagined it could.
Part of the longer stay at the shop is because building custom instrument panels takes a lot of planning and sometimes several tries to get it the way the customer aesthetically expects, let alone fitting the new layout. But to take that distracting burden off the shop, Superior has become a growing source of some of the nicest custom panel work I’ve seen. As you’d expect, today’s graphics software and metal cutting systems have stepped the capability of panel building to a high level. Frustrated when he tried to source a new panel for his own airplane, Kincaid figured out how to do it right, and even better, figured out how to pump out highly detailed panels in short order—like a few days in many cases. I think it’s a huge resource for shops (and kit builders) struggling with workflow and supply delays. Check out the video linked here for a look at Superior’s work.