Armando Leighton, Jr., who founded CRS Jet Spares 35 years ago from his mother’s garage in the Miami area, died suddenly on March 22. He was 58 years old. Leighton began his aviation career as a teenager when he was working with C-130 parts. By the time he was 21, he had taken positions with a repair station and then a fixed-base operator, where he was responsible for buying parts for Sabreliner and Learjet charter jets.

A few years later he opened his own company, Corporate Rotable & Supply, with the help of his mother, Mirta Chang, and a $2,000 investment. He saw a need to offer business aircraft operators a choice other than OEM parts, the company said in remembrance of Leighton. “It is hard to imagine in 2017 this being a novel idea with as many ‘parts’ companies as exist today. However, very few had thought this was a successful business model 35 years ago,” the company noted.

Corporate Rotable & Supply later became known as CRS Jet Spares and grew into a $27 million international aftermarket business that employs 62 people and includes Thrust Tech Aviation and Jet Tech Engineering.

“What really got me on the map was the FAA,” Leighton once recalled. “The FAA was flying twenty Sabre 60s and [the parts business] was all on a bid system, so I was able to obtain a lot of the contracts and build the company and the inventory. It all evolved out of common sense. I had no real expertise at the time.”

Within three years sales exceeded $1 million. He had expanded into other parts and bought a 3,300-sq-ft warehouse. By 1991 the company moved to a 43,000-sq-ft facility in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Thrust Tech Aviation and Jet Tech Engineering were also founded to handle certain parts servicing, approval and certification.

Along with Chang, who became known as “the CRS Mom” and was his first employee, he is survived by his wife, Diane, and his two children, Alyssa and Aram.