Projects Unlimited
Headquarters: 6300 Sand Lake Road, Vandalia.
Employees: 130. The firm has hired three new employees in the last two weeks and has openings for 23 more. Could easily have 175 employees in the next two years.
Products: Aviation electronics, circuit boards and wiring.
Source: Christopher Wyse, president, COO
VANDALIA — Aviation electronics producer Projects Unlimited Inc. is winning new contracts to keep pace with its physical expansion.
The company announced two new contracts Monday, a nearly $10 million award to build integrated wiring assemblies for Bell Helicopter of Fort Worth, Texas, and a $4.1 million contract to build harness and cable assemblies in support of a computer-controlled, radar-guided gun system for Raytheon Missile Systems, of Louisville, Ky.
And Christopher Wyse, Projects Unlimited president and chief operating officer, expects more good news in coming weeks. He anticipates announcing three to four additional contracts valued at $4 million to $5 million each.
All of this comes as the company expands with the construction of an 8,000-square-foot, $1.2 million addition at its Sand Lake Road home of five years and the acquisition of a building on nearby Stop Eight Road for its PUI audio division. Both are opening because the business is growing and space is at a premium.
On the company’s aviation side, sales are up 40 percent this year compared to last year, said Wyse, grandson of company founder David S. Wyse. Commercial aviation sales have suffered since 2008, when executives at domestic automakers were criticized for flying private jets to Washington, D.C., to testify before Congress.
Said Wyse with a smile, “That became a very bad thing, to have a private aircraft.”
But he added: “We’ve never seen too much of a drop-off in the military aviation side of the business.”
The company assembles and tests circuit boards and wiring harnesses on its manufacturing floor, which is coated with a spark-resistant surface to impede potentially damaging static electricity. By moving its audio products division — which makes speakers, microphones, transducers and more — the firm was able to reclaim 4,000 square feet for assembly work.
Circuit boards are rigorously tested, operated while undergoing dramatic temperature swings and robust physical shaking. Wyse noted that his boards are designed to endure 25 Gs of gravity forces, but pilots may pass out at 9 Gs.
“Almost everything we build flies,” Wyse said. “It goes onto an airplane and it has to work.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2390 or tgnau@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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