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Astronics acquires Vertical Power

MCA

Well Known Member
Advertiser
I am pleased to announce that Astronics acquired the Vertical Power Electronic Circuit Breaker product line on November 26, 2013. Astronics is a leading provider of advanced technologies for the global aerospace and defense industries, including Electronic Circuit Breakers for business jets such as the Eclipse 500, Pilatus PC-24, and Lear 85, under the Astronics’ CorePower® brand. Astronics will continue to manufacture, sell and support the Vertical Power ECB products and is excited to enter into the experimental aircraft and Light Sport aircraft markets under the Vertical Power brand.

Vertical Power offices will be closed during the month of December as the team moves to the Astronics’ offices in Everett, Washington. Please be patient with us during this transition; E-mail and telephone call-back support will be provided during this period.

Thank you for your support over the years, and I hope you are as excited about this next step in the journey as we are here.* I truly believe that we have found a great new home for our products with Astronics.

Kind regards,
Marc Ausman
 
Now we know why nobody has been worried about getting the forum back online.

Good luck! Hopefully this is a good thing for VP!
 
Seriously, Brian, it's been hacked and we're working to get it back up!
 
Hmm, I had noticed things hadn't been quite right lately over at Vertical Power. I can tell you that this scenario is better than the other one I was imagining. The one knock that some of my fellow builders have about buying the VP system is if they go out of business, its now just an $1800 brick. Its good to hear things are progressing upward now that I have some skin in the game. I absolutely love my VP-X so far. Good luck Marc, I'm counting on this going well.
 
Seriously, Brian, it's been hacked and we're working to get it back up!

No worries Marc, that would be the last thing I would be worried about if I was going thru an acquisition where I was being acquired!

Just poking at you! :p
 
PPS

Hey Marc, what does this mean for you PPS product? Is it still going forward or have there been any changes to plans for it?

Congrats on the acquisition, I hope it means big things for you guys!

Darin
 
Hey Marc, what does this mean for you PPS product? Is it still going forward or have there been any changes to plans for it?

Darin

Yes, we are still moving forward with the PPS. We now have access to a lot of incredible test equipment!
 
Marc, I take it you are personally remaining in place then?

I love my VPX, but as Ron (hangermate) said earlier we have both taken a bit of criticism about the VPX being a single point of failure and if the company ever goes away...and the unit breaks...you're rebuilding the entire electrical system, only this time the top skins are all on. I guess what I'm saying is....you're not leaving us...are you Marc?

Acquisitions are a strange animal. They always start with "We're not changing a thing"...but seldom does it remain that way. A large certified company acquired a smaller experimental company...do they intend to remain in the experimental market? Will the VPX be further developed or at least remain in production? Looks like the VP-400 has been removed from the website product list already.
 
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Congrats to you guys. I'm happy for you I really am.

But Marc, what do I do about the 2013 LOE VP certificate I won? I was planning a VP-X Pro purchase in late spring. Will it still be honored?
 
Is there any chance of bringing the VP-200 back or of getting mode switching on another unit sooner?

Congrats, Marc!
 
Astronics-Ballard Acquisition of Vertical Power

All,
This is Bill Schuh, VP of Sales for Astronics-Ballard. I thought I would supply just a little information for you all and provide a point for continuous contact. Most of the Vertical Power (VP) products have found a home at Ballard in Everett, WA. We are committed to continuing the VP line including support and product growth for the experimental market. We did not acquire the runway seeker product (VP-400).

We are specialist in data bus products used traditionally for military, commercial, business jet, commercial aircraft and often in general aviation. Check us out at www.ballardtech.com.

We realize that the VP market is different. Therefore, please have patience while we staff up in our customer support area. As an FYI, we are known industry-wide for our excellent customer support and plan on that going forward with the VP products.

I'll keep you posted as the move and integration go forward. Meanwhile, if you have any questions. Hit me up here or the contact data below.

Bill Schuh
VP Sales ? Ballard Technology, Inc.
An Astronics Company
[email protected]
425.212.7888 direct
425.339.0281 x121 office
www.verticalpower.com
www.ballardtech.com
Everett, WA USA
 
Bill, is Marc going to stay with the company???

If so, in what capacity??

This question has been asked a couple times already, but no clear answer that I recall.

Thanks.
 
Hmmmm

Seems MA is gone the way of the 8track. Bowed out, new dude steps up and says all future questions HE will be happy to answer. Next...

Not passing any judgement, just don't like change and Mr A seemed like a good dude the rv community will miss.

:eek:
 
If they didn't acquire the VP400 line then it probably is a safe guess that will stay in Albuquerque with Marc. Just a guess....but seems logical.

My concern is that my VP100 has been working fine, doesn't need any upgrades to the software as my airplane is build and flying.

But, I now feel a little exposed if something were to happen to my system.

Marc had always said he would take care of it and I always pictured send my VP100 back for maintenance and Marc working on it giving it CPR because no one else knew how it was built :D

Now I'm not so sure a big company can afford to give its resources to out of production equipment.
 
Astronics will continue to manufacture, sell and support the Vertical Power ECB products and is excited to enter into the experimental aircraft and Light Sport aircraft markets under the Vertical Power brand.

I do not see anything about the acquisition on their website of press releases. They have press releases for other acquisitions.
 
I believe the acquisition of Vertical Power and its Intellectual Property by Astronic / Ballard Tech is a very strategic move designed to incorporate a lower cost proven control technology into their military products area.

With the military heading in the direction of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Autonomous Underwater Vehicles, etc, the value of proven light weight control system technology will be instrumental for the future.
 
Bill, is Marc going to stay with the company???

If so, in what capacity??

This question has been asked a couple times already, but no clear answer that I recall.

Thanks.

I sure hope that Marc is still around and working for VP. It will be a major disappointment if he is not.

The first post by the new Vice Pres has me concerned.

Love the VP-X Pro and I sure hope it does not become an orphan.
 
Now I sure am glad I have all of my fuses, circuit breakers, toggle switches and a laminated checklist.

I have no reason to not be glad that I have the VP-X Pro. Time will tell if this becomes an issue or not but as of right now, my experience with VP has been great.
 
I have no reason to not be glad that I have the VP-X Pro. Time will tell if this becomes an issue or not but as of right now, my experience with VP has been great.

I concur. I was troubleshooting a problem that would have taken hours to find, but the VP/X allowed me to locate the issue in just a few minutes. I'm really spoiled with the capability of being able to monitor current on a device by device level.

It is interesting that the VP-400 wasn't part of the package. I wonder is Austin is going to do something with it.

Like Jesse, I think they ought to re-incarnate the VP-200 with some of the newer technologies in the VP/X. Killing the VP-200, in my opinion, was a mistake by VP.
 
VP, Ballard and Support

At the danger of presenting a booklet of information, I?ll present three entries. I appreciate all the chatter on the forum concerning products, support and personnel. So, let me give a little more background for assurance and answer some questions. Ballard has been around for about 27 years and has just under 50 employees. We have and continue to build our reputation on excellent customer support and supporting products for long periods of time. We are still shipping some products that are 20 years old and we do not discontinue a product for our convenience. Unlike most companies, we keep a large stock of parts and most our products ship in 4-30 days. Ballard sales and customer support are known for their expertise concerning products and their applications. We plan to manage the VP products in a similar manner, including servicing VP-100 and VP-200 products. Therefore, we hired some of the VP staff and are pursuing other personnel. As an FYI, Marc will be hanging around for bit but I?ll let him discuss that in more detail.

Bill Schuh
VP Sales ? Ballard
425.212.7888 cell
 
Thanks Bill

At the danger of presenting a booklet of information, I?ll present three entries. I appreciate all the chatter on the forum concerning products, support and personnel. So, let me give a little more background for assurance and answer some questions. Ballard has been around for about 27 years and has just under 50 employees. We have and continue to build our reputation on excellent customer support and supporting products for long periods of time. We are still shipping some products that are 20 years old and we do not discontinue a product for our convenience. Unlike most companies, we keep a large stock of parts and most our products ship in 4-30 days. Ballard sales and customer support are known for their expertise concerning products and their applications. We plan to manage the VP products in a similar manner, including servicing VP-100 and VP-200 products. Therefore, we hired some of the VP staff and are pursuing other personnel. As an FYI, Marc will be hanging around for bit but I?ll let him discuss that in more detail.

Bill Schuh
VP Sales ? Ballard
425.212.7888 cell

Glad to hear it. I would like to know that there will still be a decent ECB (with the benefits of additional solid-state logic) available for when I'm ready for it.
 
Experimental Market, Quality and Support

Ballard acquired VP products with the idea of entering the experimental market, bringing these products to other markets and trying-out new products in this marketplace. We see that it is a responsive marketplace and that customer feedback is direct and outspoken: a good proving ground for new ideas. In regards to quality, we build quality products and rarely see aircraft pulls. As an example, our AB2000 product line has seen only 2 aircraft pulls out of over 750 installs. In regards to sales and service, we work closely with our distributors and customers to expedite all AOG situations (including international shipments). Standard RMAs are turned within 2 weeks.

Bill Schuh
VP Sales ? Ballard
425.212.7888 cell
 
Specific responses to forum thread

Jesse, I will look into why the VP-200 was terminated and the potential of mode switching additions to current products. Carlos, rest assured your certificate is still good. Brian, Wayne, Ron, Bill and others, all current VP products will continue aside from the VP-400; we could not find a home for the VP-400 within Ballard or the greater Astronics family. The PPS product is going forward and we have some interesting plans for it. D. Pansier, you had it right in regards to UAVs. We do see a promising market there. Philip, while Ballard is the smaller more nimble part of Astronics, Astronics is a public company and all press releases are controlled from there. Sid, what’s in a name? I have no idea how the Astronics name came about. Ballard was named after the city of Ballard, where we started out. Bill, you are right about change. It takes some time to figure out what you got and change will occur but we want a solid name in this marketplace and you don’t get there alienating customers. Once we get our new VP customer support agent in place, I’ll make some rounds in the territories and shows. Hopefully, I’ll get to meet some of you. In the meantime, please keep the stream of thought coming. I'll do my best to find answers.

Bill Schuh
VP Sales – Ballard
425.212.7888 cell
 
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Bill, first of all thanks for providing updates. It is good to see a commitment to continuing support of discontinued products, and it appears this is part of the culture of your company.

I have a VP-200 that I expect to have in flight next year. It was a huge disappointment when the product was discontinued, and as has been mentioned it seems to those of us sold on the product to be a mis-step. There is nothing else out there competing with it. It was a significant investment for the builders, but held out a lot of promise. I, along with others, bought into the promise as much as the product. There were expectations of continuing development which turned to ashes.

Here is the published feature roadmap, and as far as I am aware the 2010 and later items have not been done. I stand to be corrected on this (he says hopefully).

http://www.verticalpower.com/docs/Feature_Roadmap.pdf

While many of these 2010 and later items are of no importance to me, I have no doubt there are other customers who had expectations of their completion. There are a few (~15) that I was looking forward to before completing my build.

Thanks again for your participation here on this forum, communication is one of the keys to building and maintaining your reputation in this community. Honesty, integrity, and outstanding customer service are the hallmarks of the successful companies serving this market. If these things are part of your company culture you will be a good fit.
 
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Thanks for the pledge of continued support

Bill,

Thanks for your pledge to continue to support the Vertical Power products that have been acquired. As an early adopter of the VPX-pro it is nice to know that I'll be able to deal with any issues that might arise in the future without having to totally rewire the plane. Look forward to hearing more news and seeing the forum online when things settle down.

Regards

Nigel
 
Bill, thanks for keeping us updated!

we are proud owners and users (3.5 years flying) of a VP-200 and we love it!
at the same time, i do not feel let down so far, not even with the discontinuation of the product line. sure would i have loved to see the software grow and get more features. but most importantly, it has worked rock-solid with few if any bugs and that is what counts.
you may want to look through older threads in the forum about/by VP, especially the one at the time of the release of the -400/discontinuation of the -200.
dropping the concept of the VP-200 imho was a huge misstep by VP.
official reason stated was because of some chip supply issues. but where's a will, there's a way. may also be that it was a bottom-line/business issue. i can only speak from a "nerd" / functionality point of view. and there it was simply revolutionary.

the flight mode switching concept was and still is a first for light aviation (reality in airliners for much longer already) and it simply works.
there are so many awesome features that are already in or could yet be implemented. in that sense, i was really surprised when they shed the product.

the vp-x is also great by the way, and probably had undercut the same market somewhat. still, found it funny that there was no modular approach with e.g. an additional mode-switching/display unit that could be paired with the vp-x and delivered more functionality than the basic support that the efis manufacturers were going to include in their software releases.

i wish you good luck and success in the (for you) "little guys" market.

regards,
bernie
 
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