Sunday, March 30, 2014

Appareo Systems: Maturing Fargo firm makes high-tech devices for aviation, agriculture

FARGO – Situated between the airport and North Dakota State University, the location of Appareo Systems’ Fargo headquarters reflects its unique enterprise.

Ranked the fastest-growing engineering firm in the nation by Inc. Magazine in 2010, Appareo Systems makes high-tech devices and software used in aviation and, more recently, agriculture.

Airbus Helicopters, a global helicopter manufacturing company based in Marignane, France, announced last month it would equip all its new aircraft with Appareo’s Vision 1000 cockpit camera and flight data recorder. Airbus had been installing the “black box”-like device in its AS350 model helicopters, or about 200 aircraft a year.

The announcement caps a stretch of phenomenal growth for 11-year-old Appareo – Latin for “to appear.”

“The company’s starting to mature more from a startup phase to a mature business model,” said Tony Grindberg, Appareo’s aviation business unit manager who also launched the NDSU Research and Technology Park where Appareo got its start.

Appareo recently opened an expanded 11,000-square-foot manufacturing facility at the Research and Technology Park headquarters with three times the floor space. It now employs more than 140 people, and has additional offices in Tempe, Ariz., and Paris, France.

Appareo has plans to release two new Federal Aviation Administration-certified products in the next year, Grindberg said. He would not release details about the products.

In addition to those initiatives, Appareo is well-poised to eventually provide technology to allow unmanned aerial vehicles to safely share airspace with general aviation.

North Dakota is one of six test sites for integrating drones into general airspace.

Appareo President and Chief Operating Officer David Batcheller said the company will “participate in conversations” about how use of unmanned aircraft will expand. He said they will likely be useful in the oil industry, agriculture and other “dirty, dangerous or dull” jobs. He expects that will happen by the end of the decade.

“In some way, shape or form, I imagine we’ll be part of that market,” Batcheller said.

Humble beginnings

Appareo was founded in 2003 by Batcheller’s father, Barry Batcheller, who also was a founder of Phoenix International, now John Deere. He is now chairman and CEO of Appareo.

Appareo started from humble beginnings, basically a “closet” in one of the research park buildings in 2003, Grindberg said.

David Batcheller said Appareo attended its first aviation tradeshow in 2006 with a flight instruction tool that, while intriguing, didn’t have wide marketability.

It did open the door for creating the GAU 2000, a lightweight, low-cost data recorder for mobile equipment. That product is part of Appareo’s ALERTS (Aircraft Logging and Event Recording for Training and Safety) line, along with the Vision 1000 flight data recorder.

Its more popular product line, however, is the Stratus, a $900 “Wii remote on steroids,” David Batcheller joked.

The wireless receiver connects to an iPad or iPod touch, which private pilots can use to access weather, GPS and altitude information.

The Stratus features Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) technology, which sends out a signal broadcasting the aircraft’s location, rather than needing to be “seen” by radar.

ADS-B technology will be mandated as part of the FAA’s modernization of radar surveillance.

David Batcheller said it’s easy for people to look at the devices Appareo creates and define the company by them.

“The software side of this is important,” he said.

Pushing the envelope

David Batcheller said Appareo thinks broadly about how its technology can be used, including off-road vehicles.

He said the company’s “young team” doesn’t know what it’s not supposed to do.

“The more we’re successful, the more we’re able to push the envelope,” the 31-year-old said.

He wants Appareo Systems to be a household name in the community, one that “contributes to the culture and landscape of this place.”

Economic development often focuses on bringing outside businesses to Fargo, David Batcheller said.

“I think businesses that are grown here are the things that have a lasting impact on the business community,” he said.

Story and photo:   http://www.inforum.com