Becklin Holdings Acquires Oregon's Chief Avionics to Build Aviation Presence

Becklin Holdings announced on September 15, 2026 that it has acquired Chief Avionics, an avionics provider based at Grants Pass Airport in Southern Oregon. Chief Avionics keeps its name and its Grants Pass location.

Chief Avionics installs, upgrades and services aircraft electronics, including navigation and communications systems, for general aviation owners, and it also sells products over the counter. It is an FAA-certified repair station, which allows it to perform specialized maintenance and alterations on aircraft. Becklin's founder described that certification as giving the group "a true aviation presence."

Becklin Holdings is a privately held portfolio of companies in advanced manufacturing, aerospace and defense. Its existing holdings include composites maker ECS Composites and precision manufacturer Stubborn Mule Manufacturing.

Blix, who founded Chief Avionics as an aviation entrepreneur, earlier built and sold Chief Aircraft, a catalog supplier of aircraft parts, while retaining the avionics business. "It was important to me that Chief Avionics move forward with an owner who respects what we have built," Blix said.

Becklin intends to expand Chief Avionics' custom panel business to include pre-assembled panels, built and shipped ready for installation. It also aims to strengthen the company's e-commerce and sheet metal fabrication capabilities.

Those capabilities are meant to support both Becklin's portfolio companies and OEM partners.

The transaction follows a familiar logic in aviation services: a repair-station certificate is slow to obtain and cannot be bolted onto a manufacturing group from the outside, so buying an operating shop is the faster way to gain regulated maintenance and alteration authority. For Becklin, Chief Avionics supplies that authority alongside composites and precision manufacturing it already owns.

The stated plan to move from installing custom panels to shipping pre-assembled ones points to a shift in where value is captured in general aviation avionics work. Panel assembly done at the supplier, rather than on the hangar floor during an installation visit, changes how shops, owners and OEM partners divide labor and lead time.

The next concrete milestone is whether pre-assembled panels and the expanded e-commerce and sheet metal capabilities become available, and whether the OEM partner work Becklin describes materialises under the Chief Avionics name.