Friends Invited on 1st Birthday

Every time you look up to see a plane knifing through the sky, chances are you are looking at an aircraft that carries a bit of Ravenna craftsmanship.

For Ravenna's Allen Aircraft serves every major aircraft manufacturer in the country supplying a variety of valves. And another Ravenna company, Ward-Riddle, supplies machined engine parts for aircraft.

These two sister industries, Allen Aircraft and Ward-Riddle, are celebrating their first anniversary in new quarters this Saturday afternoon with an open house for their 100 employees and their guests.

The two plants are located next to one another: Allen Aircraft on the corner of Newton Falls Rd. and Woodbine, immediately east of Cotton Corners; and Ward-Riddle at 6168 Woodbine, around the corner from Allen.

The open house will show the processes and products of the two young and expanding companies.

Allen Aircraft has two distinct operations: the manufacture of aircraft valves, and a metal finishing operation. Their valves find homes on airplanes, missiles and the atomic submarines. The metal finishing operation puts various finishes on metals for the manufacturing trade.

Ward-Riddle makes aircraft, missile and automotive parts — highly technical machined parts, custom made. Another line is making deep hole drilling equipment. Hugh Riddle designed a machine for this.

The two companies find their link in ownership. The officers of one company are the officers of the other. Neil Mann is president of Allen Aircraft and vice president of Ward-Riddle. Hugh Riddle is president of Ward-Riddle and vice president of Allen Aircraft. George Walter is secretary of both companies. In some instances the two companies will work on the same job: Ward-Riddle may machine a part that is later anodized at Allen Aircraft.

Ward-Riddle's markets are usually confined to the Ohio-Michigan-Pennsylvania area. Allen Aircraft's markets are national: "Almost every major aircraft manufacturer uses our valves," said Mann. These vary in size from a fraction of an inch to several inches.

Ward-Riddle was established in 1946 and Allen Aircraft a year later in 1947. Each company employs 50 people. Their combined payroll pours over a half-million dollars a year into the community.

Both companies have similar brick buildings standing on plots of an acre or more. Allen Aircraft originally settled on its present site and underwent four expansion programs before last year's remodeling, which doubled its space to 18,000 square feet.

Ward-Riddle moved into a brand new building a year ago. Until that time all operations were in a building at the corner of Myrtle and Spruce Sts., Ravenna. The new building has 13,000 square feet of work space.

Recently Allen Aircraft has gotten into a glamorous field: anodizing aluminum windows and doors in color. The front of the new Theatrical Restaurant in Cleveland was done by Allen Aircraft, as were the United Nations library and the American Cyanamid buildings in New York and the Hunt Library at Carnegie Tech in Pittsburgh.

At Allen Aircraft, Bill Hayduk is manager of the metal finish; Charles Austin is superintendent of production of metal finishing; Gene Dietrich is superintendent of aircraft; and William Salladay is sales manager. At Ward-Riddle, Harold Sommers is plant superintendent.

Expansion, either in buildings or personnel, is not imminent according to the officers. In the long look, however, they are both in expanding, not contracting, industries. Their industrial future looks bright.