Airframes named to Inc., 5000's list for fourth time in last six years

PALMER — Headquartered on Commercial Drive in Palmer but with four locations statewide, Airframes Alaska has landed on the Inc. 5,000 list of fastest growing private companies in America. This is the fourth year out of the last six that Airframes Alaska has landed on the list and the second since moving their headquarters to Palmer in 2019.

“Usually there’s a sweet spot, sort of like you’re growing a company and you kind of hit that spot right in there and you’ll qualify. it’s rare to kind of keep qualifying so I’m almost more excited about it this year than I was in the past because I think the repeat side is starting to sound more fun for me,” said Airframes CEO Sean McLaughlin. “We looked at building a factory like this in Anchorage and it was going to be more than two times as expensive as buying what was here and renovating it and the hassle and the permitting and the restrictions. We moved to Palmer and the same set of rules, but we got people that were really eager to see us be here, want to help us. The town has been unbelievable, the building inspector is unbelievable, the fire marshal is unbelievable, if we go to Anchorage we’re just like some rando in there not getting that kind of treatment.”

Airframes is listed as the 3,019th fastest growing private company in the United States with 127 percent growth over the last year. A number of new additions and spikes in popularity allowed Airframes to continue their impressive growth. McLaughlin said that Airframes did $18 million in business during 2021 and employed 90 people across Alaska with locations in Anchorage, Palmer and two in Fairbanks. In 2022, McLaughlin expects to employ over 115 people statewide and continue to grow by approximately 20 percent.

“Some things we carry, we carry purely for legacy Alaskan reasons, so our philosophy is always to manage and support our local market first and then make as much money as we can selling it to the Lower 48 and other places in the world,” said McLaughlin. “Alaska is the greatest brand in the world, so we start by servicing our local market and that is our brand and if our stuff is tried and tested and used here, we sort of have street cred everywhere else so we start here and we are exporting the Alaskan brand.”

Airframes recently began manufacturing aluminum airfoils to replace steel airfoils that were up to 12 lbs heavier than the aircraft grade aluminum version. The material for aluminum airfoils became popular among local fishermen who were crafting their own lighter versions of dipnets, which welders quickly began producing at Airframes Alaska. The design comes in a circular style and a “Chitna” style with a flat top bar and rounded lower net and feature a foam handle that says “dip or die.”

“We said well if they all like our aluminum, let’s try to build one and then we did some cool stuff like this design is actually an airplane airfoil,” said McLaughlin. “It’s like an airplane wing so that actually allows this thing to sit with like, no drag in the water.”

The Alaska Tent and Tarp business under Airframes Alaska has continued to grow in recent years, but saw a surprising uptick during the spring of 2020. Forced to abandon village checkpoints along the historic Iditarod trail, the Iditarod instead bought 30 Arctic Oven tents manufactured at Airframes Alaska in Palmer. The products that are manufactured by Airframes Alaska and sold to aviation enthusiasts around the world range far and wide. The replacement supercub fuselages fabricated at the Palmer Airframes location are only made by a small handful of companies around the world. However, the Alaskan Bushwheel rubber Short Take Off Landing (STOL) tires are the most recognizable product that Airframes Alaska produces.

“You don’t have a STOL aircraft unless you’ve got bushwheels on it, so that’s a secular trend we’re riding that if you’re not in aviation you might not see it,” said McLaughlin. “We’re always trying to lower weight and increase performance. This makes your margin of error in the wild, it grows it by orders of magnitude.”

Rubber is shipped in from the lower 48 to be carefully baked inside of custom machinery before it is finished by hand from employees at Airframes Alaska in Palmer. The bushwheels range from 20 pounds to over 30 pounds and are formulated at 280 degrees.

“Just like every other part, our innovation goes into two things; the ability of the tire to withstand impacts and hits, so designing the tire so that it’s much more resilient to what’s happening out there. The second part of it is cutting weight,” said McLaughlin.

For the coming year, McLaughlin said that more projects that are under research and development will be unveiled along with sauna tents.