Will Focus On Manufacturing, MRO Business In Tulsa, OK

A new company, R2 Aerospace, has been established by former Yankee Pacific Aerospace (YPA), Inc., vice-president of business development and founding shareholder, Rick Richardson. R2 Aerospace will pursue new opportunities in aircraft industry manufacturing and MRO in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Richardson has extensive experience over his 26-year career across all aspects of large aircraft interior completions.

Richardson will continue to provide technical and marketing support for YPA under a consulting agreement.
R2 Aerospace president, Rick Richardson, said, “The establishment of R2 Aerospace is an exciting venture which will provide many opportunities for aircraft industry growth within manufacturing and MRO across the Tulsa region.

“My past experience in managing and forming aviation companies, in addition to my extensive knowledge and contact base within the industry, places me in good stead to provide R2 Aerospace clients with outstanding customer service.”

YPA, LLC, managing director, Ken Goldsmith, said, “Rick made a major contribution to the growth of Yankee Pacific Aerospace during his tenure with the company.  We look forward to continuing our consulting relationship and wish him equal success as he pursues his new venture.”

Richardson and Goldsmith teamed up in 2002 at Lufthansa Technik AG in Hamburg, Germany, to form Lufthansa Technik Completion Engineering, LLC, in Tulsa.  After acquiring Lufthansa’s stake in 2004 and forming Executive Aircraft Completions, LLC (EAC), Richardson and Yankee Pacific went on to merge EAC into Yankee Pacific Aerospace, Inc., a company formed by Yankee Pacific and Richardson in 2006 with private equity firm, Hancock Park Associates.  YPA subsequently acquired Jormac Aerospace in 2006 and Cabin Innovations in 2007, before going on to form Aircraft Systems Division in 2011.  Starting in 2002, Richardson rose from vp of engineering at LTCE to vp-general manager at EAC, then to president of Cabin Innovations and finally to vp of business development at YPA.

From 1985 to 1993, Richardson was an avionics & electrical design engineer at Dassault Falcon Jet and an electrical design engineer at Arkansas Aerospace.  From 1993 until 2002, he held positions as project engineer, DAS administrator and director of engineering & certification at Bombardier, where he led the completions engineering group in Tucson, Arizona, and Montreal, Canada.  He studied engineering at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and holds a delegation from the FAA as a Delegated Engineering Representative (DER) in mechanical systems and equipment.

FMI: www.r2aerospace.com