Aero Union

Aero Union Corporation was an aircraft operation and maintenance company based in Chico, California, United States.

[5][6] A smaller scale Chico operation continued to be maintained for several months to provide additional storage and flexibility.

Aero Union also exchanged other planes with the USFS, with the government retaining the titles and ownership, and was required to maintain and operate them for firefighting duties.

[8] On July 29, 2011, the U.S. Forest Service announced that it had canceled its six-plane contract with Aero Union after the company's planes failed their required safety inspections.

[9][10] In April 2011 Aero Union had voluntarily disclosed that its planes were not current on inspections and were in violation of the contract.

[14][15] Reduced to a staff of 5 people after the last round of layoffs, down from approximately 230 in 2008, CEO Brett Gourley claimed “The company is in sort of hibernation mode” and was looking for other sources of income.

[21] Aero Union delivered the first production unit to the USFS in July, 2007, with flight testing that following August.