Piper’s New Owner to Run Firm on a Full-Time Basis

Newport Beach businessman Monroe Stuart Millar has already sold one of his two Orange County high-tech companies and plans to sell the other to devote his time to running Piper Aircraft, which he bought Monday from Lear Siegler Holdings, a Piper spokesman said Friday.

Millar will serve as Piper’s chief executive once his California companies are sold, the spokesman, C. Raymond Johnson, said. “One of them is already sold. He didn’t reveal which one, and he won’t reveal to whom.”

A spokeswoman for Consolidated Micrographics of Laguna Niguel and Newport Scientific of Newport Beach refused to comment on the companies’ futures. Consolidated manufactures a line of microfilm and microfiche equipment and supplies. Newport manufactures compressors and laboratory test equipment.

Johnson said the two companies are not being sold to raise money to buy Piper. He refused to comment on the terms of the Piper sale but said that Millar borrowed no money to buy the ailing, 50-year-old general aviation manufacturing firm and “there’s no money owed on the purchase.”

Few details of the sale of Piper to Millar have emerged since a terse announcement was issued Tuesday.

First Flight in a Piper

Millar was at Piper headquarters in Vero Beach, Fla., on Friday and was not available for comment. His identity as head of Romeo Charlie, the holding company formed for the Piper purchase, was not disclosed until Wednesday. His only public statements about Piper came at a press conference Thursday in Vero Beach.

Millar said then that it was his “destiny” to own Piper, Johnson said. After reading a book about airplane piloting called “I Wanted Wings,” Millar decided at age 12 that he wanted to be a fighter pilot and met that goal in World War II as a member of the Army Air Corps. His first solo flight was in a Piper Cub, Johnson said.

“The ambition of my entire lifetime is to be standing here as owner,” Johnson quoted Millar as saying.

Millar spent a decade with North American Aviation, ending up as manager of administration for the engineering department of the company’s autonetics division, said Jeffrey Charney, a spokesman for Rockwell International Corp., which merged with North American in the 1970s.

Nancy Holzauer, a Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman, said Millar holds a private pilot’s license and is the registered owner of a $1.5-million Beechcraft King Air F90.

Johnson said Millar plans to trade in that plane in favor of a Cheyenne 400LS--a $3-million turboprop made by Piper.

Millar spent Friday working on Piper’s product liability problems, Johnson said. The company faces numerous product liability suits connected with alleged defects in the design of its airplanes. When Lear Siegler purchased Piper in 1984, it set up a $100-million reserve to cover liability costs, the spokesman added. Millar now owns 100% of Piper’s shares, and responsibility for the product liability problems “goes along with that,” Johnson said.

At its peak in 1980, Piper had 8,800 employees at five plants. Before the firm was sold to Millar, Piper management considered reducing the work force to 500. But Millar was not able to tell employees last week whether such layoffs are in the works.

“Still, the employees received him very, very well,” Johnson said. “he made everyone feel there was someone in charge of the company that would make it run and do our traditional business.”