In July of 1950 Orville Turner begin Engine Accessory work at L. H. Luckey, Inc. of Dallas, Texas. The knowledge and experience he gained through working there would be the first stepping stone in the birth of S & T Aircraft. Orville left L. H.  Luckey in 1956, and joined forces with Ab Orman and John Yur, and founded Aero Accessories, Inc. of San Antonio. Through the founding of Aero Accessories, Inc., Orville learned what mistakes to avoid and how to create a great repair station, where customers come first.

After Orville left Aero Accessories, Inc. in the fall of 1983, Orville Turner joined forces with Hoyt Smallwood, and founded S & T Aircraft Accessories in New Braunfels, Texas. Their goal was to provide aircraft engine accessory service and support to the radial engine, vintage aircraft, and agriculture aviation industry. Working from a small 10,000 square foot old Pepsi Co. warehouse, S & T Aircraft rapidly began to gain traction and grow.

In 1990, Hoyt sold his shares back to the company, and since then S & T Aircraft has been 100% family owned and operated. Mary Turner, Orville’s wife stepped up to fill the gap that Hoyt left. Rising to the occasion, she learned all that she could about the industry and became the Vice President of S & T Aircraft. Hoyt would go on to operate another company he started, supplying parts in the aviation industry.

In 1992, S & T Aircraft purchased 3 acres of farm land and built a 12,000 square foot building. While moving our operations from the old Pepsi Co. warehouse, we continued to deliver the quality aircraft accessories and support that our customers had come to expect. Prior to 1996, S & T Aircraft would have to send damaged armatures and fields out to third-party rewind shops, but this caused longer repair times for our customers. So in 1996, we built an addition to our new shop, bringing our total building size up to 22,000 square feet. We purchased a rewind shop, and moved our rewind process in house. This gave us a competitive edge over our competition by allowing us to knock off extra delay in time and extra cost in returning our customer’s items.

Orville passed away in 1998, and it was a great time of mourning, not only for his family and S & T Aircraft, but for many in the aviation industry. At that time, it was almost as if a plane had fallen from the sky. There wasn’t anyone in the aviation industry, who hadn’t been friends with Orville, or had understood his commitment to service and support. Before his passing, he made sure to teach everything he knew to his wife Mary and his step-son Nathan. Because he passed his knowledge on, he setup S & T Aircraft to bounce back and continue his legacy and commitment of service and support.

Today, S & T Aircraft is considered by many in the aviation industry, to be the authority in vintage, radial and turbine engine accessories. Every day, we strive to accomplish accessory repairs and provide the support that our customers deserve. Whether you’re a one person operation, or a fortune 500 company, we provide you with the personalized support that you need. We continue to innovate how we conduct our repairs and provide support to our customers. With the dwindling ability to locate surplus parts, we’ve also started producing parts under Repair Specification and Parts Manufacturing Approval issued to us by the FAA. We look forward to working with you to meet all of your accessory repair and support needs.