Mike Kelley started doing aircraft maintenance in 1977 in a hangar on Wellington’s municipal airport, hanging out his shingle as Air Plains Services, a nod to both the Great Plains of southcentral Kansas and the region’s reputation for aviation. Just a few miles north is Wichita, home to aviation legends Clyde Cessna, Walter Beech and Lloyd Stearman and known today as the Air Capital of the World. It wasn’t long, though, before Kelley and his wife, Carolyn, turned a passion for flying and for innovation into an industry leader as an airplane transformer, turning legacy Cessna pistons into power singles with STCs for Extreme Performance engine upgrades. Forty-five years later, the company still ranks as the leader in engine upgrade STCs and has added a wide range of avionics upgrades, propeller STCs, PMA parts, specialty manufacturing, interiors, and, of course, full aircraft maintenance.