Airplan Flight Equipment (AFE) started life in 1973 as Spodemoor Aviation, operating part-time from offices in Bradford, UK and supplying a loyal band of pilots and flying clubs with all their flight equipment needs. The company grew steadily and in 1985 it was taken over and (after changing that name) the company moved to premises near Manchester Airport. At this time the company acquired the first of a long line of sales vans which, since then, have driven several million miles around the airfields of the UK and Continental Europe. In due course the company moved to premises on the Southside of Manchester Airport, then to bigger premises on the Southside again. When the second runway was built, AFE re-located to their current offices and warehouse just north of the runway 23R threshold at Manchester Airport.
This history of service to the aviation training industry makes AFE Europe’s longest established pilot shop. We have also acquired various brands along the way including RD Aviation and Nevynn International.
Today, AFE is Europe’s principle publisher and distributor of pilot supplies and flying training products, and every product we sell is backed by our reputation as Europe’s longest established company in the field. Publications and products that carry the AFE logo are widely acknowledged for their quality and accuracy.
Our customers include leading flying schools and gliding clubs, major airlines, the armed forces, aircraft manufacturers, leading maintenance companies and tens of thousands of individual aircraft owners and pilots worldwide. To all our customers we aim to offer the best service and most competitive prices across the widest stock range. What’s more, our buying power allows us to offer the most competitive prices right across our product range, whether you are buying one logbook or two hundred headsets.
What is the ‘Right Stuff’?
Wikipedia: “The Right Stuff is a 1979 book by Tom Wolfe about the pilots engaged in US post-war experimental rocket-powered, high-speed aircraft as well as documenting the stories of the first Project Mercury astronauts. The story contrasts the ‘Mercury Seven’ and their families with test pilots such as Chuck Yeager, who was considered by many contemporaries as the best of them all, but who was never selected as an astronaut.”
‘The Right Stuff’ is also one of our favourite films, based on the Tom Wolfe book, and even if the film is a trifle long at just over three hours, many pilots find it absolutely riveting from start to finish (and we’ve got the DVD box set too!).
But more importantly ‘The Right Stuff’ is a short-hand that pilots use to describe the very best of their fellow pilots, those who have virtue of the highest order as well as the skill and courage to be considered the best of the best.
Yes, ‘The Right Stuff’ is a play on words, as we like to think that at AFE we only supply ‘The Right Stuff’ to our customers. But more than that it’s a tribute to many of the pilots we get to know who, outwardly unassuming and modest, show the rest of us just what can be achieved through guts and determination.
In our business, AFE are lucky enough to meet hundreds of pilots out there who all have ‘The Right Stuff’ in one way or another, and we salute you!