Yingling Aviation has named Kerry Heiss vice president of sales and marketing. Heiss stepped into the role on 13 July.

He leads sales and marketing across all of Yingling's service lines: airframe maintenance, avionics, paint, interiors, parts distribution, accessories, AOG support and FBO services. He reports to Gregg Fahrenbruch, who became chief executive officer in March.

“Kerry led the MRO sales organisation at Western Aircraft, one of the strongest independent shops in the West,” confirms Fahrenbruch. “He has spent two decades in aviation MRO, and he knows that when an operator schedules a shop visit, every extra day the aircraft sits is a day it isn't flying. He's also a pilot, which means he's comfortable talking with a chief pilot or a director of maintenance about both a project work scope and how they use their aircraft.”

Heiss has spent 24 years in aviation, more than 20 of them in MRO. He joins Yingling from Western Aircraft in Boise, Idaho, where he was director of MRO sales and marketing for more than nine years, leading the sales organisation at one of the premier independent service centres in the western United States. A former US Navy Supply Corps officer, he began his aviation career at GE Aircraft Engines, then held sales and marketing leadership roles at StandardAero and BendixKing Avionics. He holds a commercial pilot certificate with instrument and multi-engine ratings.

“Yingling has decades of aviation history in Wichita, and what these shops can take on has grown a lot in that time,” he says. “That now includes larger jets: Global Express, Challenger and Gulfstream aircraft. I look forward to introducing more operators to everything we can provide.”