Bill Bainbridge
Founder and President of B&C Specialty Products IncWilliam (Bill) Bainbridge III is the founder and President of B&C Specialty Products, Inc. Originally from the Kansas City, Kansas area, Bill comes by his love of aviation honestly — his father, William Bainbridge II, was a career TWA pilot who instilled in his son an infectious enthusiasm for all things aviation.
In 1980, Bill happily discovered a way to combine his avocation with his vocation, and B&C Specialty Products was born. Founded initially to build lightweight, reliable alternators for the budding home-built aircraft industry, B&C began business — literally — in Bill’s backyard shop. Within a few years, however, word of mouth among satisfied home-building enthusiasts allowed the young company to grow, and Bill developed the B&C Starter for Lycoming engines — the first lightweight starter in General Aviation. This “first” was soon followed by others — the first lightweight Starter for Continental engines, and the first 90-degree Spin-On Oil Filter Adapter for Lycoming engines. A quartet of “near-first” products came en route, such as an innovative Standby Alternator system, a linear Alternator Controller (voltage regulator), a vacuum pump pad with inverted oil pickup, and a line of sealed RG batteries. Bill also fielded increasingly-frequent requests to develop products for production aircraft, and to obtain STC/PMA status for many of his existing designs for home-built aircraft components. All bore the stamp of Bill’s personal determination to build products distinguished by their quality.
Bill’s reputation as a quality-minded innovator resulted in his being invited to participate in several cutting-edge aviation projects over the years. Among these now-historic projects are the Voyager “Round-the-World” flight in 1986 (providing alternators and regulators); and the White Knight high-altitude aircraft, which carried the SpaceShipOne aloft for its flights into outer space, in 2005 (again providing alternators and regulators). Both of these projects required mission-critical reliability and rock-solid performance — and Bill’s contributions did not disappoint.
Today, Bill remains active in the day-to-day business of B&C Specialty Products, with both of his sons participating in the business also. The company he founded in 1980 continues production in the same facility in Newton, Kansas that it has occupied for the last 30 years. And the products B&C manufactures today continue to reflect Bill’s long-standing commitment to quality, reliability, and innovation.
