The parent company , Astronics , is involved with a variety of industries including business and commercial aviation , defense , eVTOL , mass transit , medical devices , rotorcraft , space systems , and VIP aircraft . The company is part of a larger company that started in 1968 as a lighting company in New York . They supported the aerospace and defense industries for decades and then about 15 years ago , they started buying smaller vertically aligned businesses . Now they own several different businesses making up aerospace and test system industries . They are located throughout the U . S ., and have locations in Canada , India , and France . Now called Astronics PECO , the PECO business was a long-term Oregon business that had an established name . They had been working with Boeing going back 50 years .
Vice President and General Manager of Astronics PECO , Nick Stevenson has been with the company since 2010 . He started out as a mechanical engineer , and then worked in product marketing . One thing he likes about the company is the opportunity to train in a variety of areas . “ You are able to get involved in many aspects of the business . That makes it fun ; design engineers are running cost reduction projects alongside manufacturing engineers ,” he said . Stevenson added that they pride themselves on their deep customer relationships and the ability to work in a professionally intimate manner with customers .
12 NORTHWEST AEROSPACE NEWS