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| Aerospace | |
| Founded | December 29, 1961 |
| Headquarters | Falcon Field, Mesa, Arizona , USA |
Key people | Floyd Stilwell, CEO |
| Services | Aircraft engineering & maintenance, systems design and manufacture |
Marsh Aviation is an aircraft engineering, design, maintenance and re-manufacturing company, situated on East Falcon Drive, at Falcon Field in Mesa, Arizona. The company often works as a sub-contractor to well-known brand-name aerospace companies, discreetly designing and manufacturing components and sub-systems for high-profile programs. The company has also worked on a variety of aircraft programs for governments all over the world.
Mesa is a city in Maricopa County, in the U.S. state of Arizona. It is a suburb located about 20 miles (32 km) east of Phoenix in the East Valley section of the Phoenix Metropolitan Area. It is bordered by Tempe on the west, the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community on the north, Chandler and Gilbert on the south along with Queen Creek, and Apache Junction on the east.
Founded in December 1961 to convert piston-powered aircraft to turboprop power, the company's first projects involved fitting Rockwell Thrush Commander agricultural aircraft with Garrett AiResearch TPE-331 engines. Later, the firm also re-engined Gulfstream Turbo Cats, Beech Turbo Mentors and Grumman S-2 Trackers with Garrett engines.
The Grumman S-2 Tracker was the first purpose-built, single airframe anti-submarine warfare (ASW) aircraft to enter service with the United States Navy. Designed and initially built by Grumman, the Tracker was of conventional design — propeller-driven with twin radial engines, a high wing that could be folded for storage on aircraft carriers, and tricycle undercarriage. The type was exported to a number of navies around the world. Introduced in 1952, the Tracker and its E-1 Tracer derivative saw service in the U.S. Navy until the mid-1970s, and its C-1 Trader derivative until the mid-1980s, with a few aircraft remaining in service with other air arms into the 21st century. Argentina and Brazil are the last countries to still use the Tracker.
The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in September 2009. [1]
Some of Marsh Aviation's aircraft engineering modification programs include:
- Grumman S-2F3AT Turbo Tracker, a re-engined Grumman S-2 Tracker, with Garrett TPE331 engines. Six converted for Argentine Navy. [2]
- Rockwell/Ayres S2R-T Turbo Thrush airplane, a turboprop conversion of the Rockwell Thrush Commander, using a 600 hp (450 kW) Garrett TPE331-1-101 engine. Deliveries started in 1976. [3] 75 conversions were completed by 1985. [4]
- Grumman G164C Turbo Cat airplane, a turboprop conversion of the Grumman Super Ag Cat C/600. Six converted. [3]
The Ayres Thrush, formerly the Snow S-2, Aero Commander Ag Commander, and Rockwell Thrush Commander, is an American agricultural aircraft produced by Ayres Corporation and more recently by Thrush Aircraft. It is one of the most successful and long-lived agricultural application aircraft types in the world, with almost 2,000 sold since the first example flew 63 years ago. Typical of agricultural aircraft, it is a single-seat monoplane of conventional taildragger configuration. Originally powered by a radial piston engine, most examples produced since the 1980s have been turboprop-powered.
