2025: Celebrating a Year of Unity and Expansion
For much of our 25-year-plus history, Pro Star has been a collaboration of specialized businesses, each excelling in its own domain. In 2025, however, something shifted. This year marked the first truly concerted effort to bring the full breadth of the Laughlin family of companies together under a unified umbrella. It was a year not just defined by growth, but by alignment. Aircraft sales, manufacturing, maintenance, special missions, and new facilities were no longer operating as parallel efforts but as parts of a singular, more integrated operation. This resulted in greater internal clarity, a more cohesive customer experience, and a strong foundation built to support continued growth in the years ahead.
One of the most prominent milestones was geographic expansion. For decades, Pro Star has operated primarily out of its Manchester, NH location. In 2025, the opening of the Grand Rapids, MI facility marked the company’s first major brand expansion, expanding Pro Star’s reach to the western edge of its Pilatus territory. In its first year of operation, the Grand Rapids hangar was frequently booked to capacity—a true testament to the teams on the floor and behind the scenes who made it happen. Just as importantly, the Michigan location elevated Pro Star’s national presence, reinforcing its credibility and awareness across the industry.
That growth was supported by deliberate internal investments in both leadership and operations. In Manchester, Pro Star strengthened its operational leadership structure with the addition of Wayne Tibbetts as Operations Director. Coming from Bombardier, Wayne brought deep OEM experience and immediately added structure, efficiency, and oversight to production operations. Additionally, Pro Star expanded planning and sales capabilities with dedicated experts for individual OEMs. This ensured that customers would be supported by teams with focused technical and operational knowledge.
A major enabler of this alignment was technology. In 2025, Pro Star implemented a common ERP and CRM platform, Quantum, across locations, including Northeast Air. Though a major effort, it now provides real-time visibility into production, inventory, scheduling, and analytics across the organization. This resulted in improved predictability, better coordination between sites, and a more consistent customer experience from quote to delivery.
Our newly centralized approach was especially evident in our sales and planning departments. Historically, these departments just served the Manchester location. With our concerted effort to unify locations, the sales and planning teams introduced a more streamlined quoting and workflow process this year, allowing technical teams to stay focused on maintenance and installations while ensuring customers receive clear expectations and reliable schedules. It’s a shift that benefits everyone: fewer bottlenecks, better communication, and a steady, predictable flow of work.
On the technical front, 2025 was a year of ‘firsts’. Pro Star completed and initiated a number of milestone projects this year, including:
- Starlink installations on Challenger 300 and 350, Falcon 2000, Global 5000 and 7500 aircraft
- Gogo Galileo installation on a Challenger 605
- Progress toward first-of-type Galileo STC for the Pilatus PC-12
- Multiple heavy “C Check” level inspections across Pilatus, Embraer, and Challenger platforms, including 96-month inspections on Challenger 650s
- Earning EASA Part-145 Repair Station approval in Manchester, NH
- Expansion of federal aircraft support, including a Starlink installation on a NASA aircraft
Willingness to push into new territory was also evident in Pro Star’s evolving approach to federal contracting. Rather than viewing the federal market solely through the lens of special missions modification, Pro Star took a more holistic approach—integrating maintenance, installation, and long-term support capabilities. While work remains on certifications and infrastructure, 2025 helped to identify gaps, test processes, and build the internal muscle needed to compete more effectively within the federal marketplace.
Underlying all of this progress was a renewed commitment to our identity. To reflect the consolidation of the Laughlin family companies and to celebrate more than 25 years in the business, Pro Star undertook a comprehensive rebrand in 2025. New logos, uniforms, a refreshed website, updated collateral, and trade show materials were not just cosmetic changes—they were outward expressions of a more unified organization. For the first time in our history, Pro Star’s full range of capabilities are being showcased together as one cohesive unit. While there is always more to come, 2025 positioned Pro Star Aviation to move into 2026 stronger, more connected, and more intentional than ever before. This year wasn’t just about doing more, it was about doing things together—and that may be the most important milestone of all.



