Ken Brock Manufacturing, Inc. was an American

aircraft manufacturer An aerospace manufacturer is a company or individual involved in the various aspects of designing, building, testing, selling, and maintaining aircraft, aircraft parts, missiles, rockets, or spacecraft. Aerospace is a high technology indust ...

founded by Ken Brock in the 1960s and based in

Stanton, California Stanton is a city in northern Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The population was 37,962 at the 2020 United States Census. The city was incorporated in 1956 and operates under the council–manager form o ...

. The company specialized in the design and manufacture of

autogyro An autogyro (from Greek and , "self-turning"), also known as a ''gyroplane'', is a type of rotorcraft that uses an unpowered rotor in free autorotation to develop lift. Forward thrust is provided independently, by an engine-driven propeller. Whi ...

s in the form of kits for amateur construction, including under the US

FAR 103 Ultralight Vehicles Ultralight aircraft in the United States are much smaller and lighter than ultralight aircraft as defined by all other countries. In the United States, ultralights are described as "ultralight vehicles" and not as aircraft. They are not req ...

rules.Cliche, Andre: ''Ultralight Aircraft Shopper's Guide'' 8th Edition, pages E-3 and F-3. Cybair Limited Publishing, 2001. Downey, Julia: ''2005 Trikes 'Chutes and Rotorcraft Directory'', Kitplanes, Volume 22, Number 2, February 2005, page 57. Belvoir Publications. ISSN 0891-1851 Ken Brock Manufacturing produced a number of aircraft designs including the Brock KB-1, Brock KB-2 and Brock KB-3 autogyros, plus the Ken Hovey-engineered Brock Avion ultralight aircraft. The company was also noted for the high-quality

aircraft part An aircraft part is an article or component approved for installation on a type-certificated aircraft. Approval for these parts is derived from the jurisdictions of the countries that an aircraft is based. In the United States, the Federal Aviatio ...

s that it produced for other designer's aircraft, especially the

Rutan Long-EZ The Rutan Model 61 Long-EZ is a tandem 2-seater homebuilt aircraft designed by Burt Rutan's Rutan Aircraft Factory. The Long-EZ has a canard layout, a swept wing with wingtip rudders, and a pusher engine and propeller. The tricycle landing ...

and the Cozy Mark IV. The company occupied a plant that included lathes,

milling machine Milling is the process of machining using rotary cutters to remove material by advancing a cutter into a workpiece. This may be done by varying direction on one or several axes, cutter head speed, and pressure. Milling covers a wide variety of d ...

drill press A drill is a tool used for making round holes or driving fasteners. It is fitted with a bit, either a drill or driverchuck. Hand-operated types are dramatically decreasing in popularity and cordless battery-powered ones proliferating due to i ...

es,

tap and die Taps and dies are tools used to create screw threads, which is called threading. Many are cutting tools; others are forming tools. A tap is used to cut or form the female portion of the mating pair (e.g. a nut). A die is used to cut or form the ...

making, equipment for

heat treating Heat treating (or heat treatment) is a group of industrial, thermal and metalworking processes used to alter the physical, and sometimes chemical, properties of a material. The most common application is metallurgical. Heat treatments are als ...

metal,

plating Plating is a surface covering in which a metal is deposited on a conductive surface. Plating has been done for hundreds of years; it is also critical for modern technology. Plating is used to decorate objects, for corrosion inhibition, to impro ...

and

welding Welding is a fabrication process that joins materials, usually metals or thermoplastics, by using high heat to melt the parts together and allowing them to cool, causing fusion. Welding is distinct from lower temperature techniques such as bra ...

. A subsidiary was Santa Ana Metal Stamping, which Brock set up to produce stamped metal parts using numerical control machinery. The company closed for business at the end of 2005 after Brock's death on 19 October 2001 while landing a

Thorp T-18 The Thorp T-18 is an American, two-place, all-metal, plans-built, homebuilt aircraft designed in 1963 by John Thorp.Bayerl, Robby; Martin Berkemeier; et al: ''World Directory of Leisure Aviation 2011–12'', page 98. WDLA UK, Lancaster UK, 2 ...

. After his death, Brock's widow, Marie Brock, who survived the 2001 accident, attempted to sell the business and parts on hand.

Aircraft Spruce & Specialty Co Aircraft Spruce & Specialty Co. is an American producer of aircraft parts and services including plans for homebuilt aircraft. History Aircraft Spruce Co. was founded in 1965 by Bob and Flo Irwin as a follow-on to founding Fullerton Air Parts ...

purchased the Cozy Mark IV parts inventory, jigs, tooling and drawings.

Aircraft

References

External links

Company website archives
on

Archive.org The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

{{Ken Brock aircraft Defunct aircraft manufacturers of the United States Ultralight aircraft Homebuilt aircraft Autogyros Stanton, California Companies based in Orange County, California