Aviators Owe Lives to FXC Corp. : Safety: Frank Chevrier built Santa Ana firm into one of the country’s leading makers of escape systems for the military.
Frank Chevrier has nothing but satisfied customers. If they weren’t, they wouldn’t live to tell about it.
Chevrier is a former draftsman who built his company, FXC Corp., into one of the nation’s leading makers of parachutes and automatic rip cord release devices for the military.
When a pilot bails out of his exploding jet fighter, it’s FXC’s rip cord release and parachute that saves his life.
Ditto for Navy commandos who can leap from planes so high that the jumpers need oxygen masks and glide for miles before hitting the bull’s-eye.
Even space shuttles, revamped in the wake of the 1986 Challenger disaster, carry FXC escape systems.
“Every astronaut is fitted with our equipment. If they bail out, they are depending on FXC,” Chevrier said.
The government’s satisfaction with his products is a matter of great pride to Chevrier, a French-Canadian native who still speaks with a hint of an accent.
In a business where success is counted in human lives, he said, his company hasn’t failed a single aviator yet. The reason: FXC’s ejection seat components have a built-in reliability factor of 99.99985%, he said.
“Altogether, we’ve saved about 1,500 people,” he said.
Along the way, Chevrier has built a company that now employs 85 people in a large industrial building in one of Santa Ana’s industrial parks.
His strategy was establishing strong military contacts, building a reputation for reliability and staying abreast of the latest ideas and technology.
The Navy developed anti-submarine torpedoes that are dropped from patrol planes. FXC subsequently made parachutes to break their fall into the ocean.
When the Air Force was working on ways of dropping vehicles and other heavy equipment from cargo planes, FXC developed a mechanism that breaks the parachute away in case the cargo won’t budge--thus preventing catastrophic drag that could cause the plane to crash.
The company is now devising parachutes that will allow cargo to be dropped 25 miles from its eventual destination. It is then guided by a satellite-connected navigation device. It can even take reconnaissance photos along the way.
Chevrier’s business, which now has annual sales of $8 million, started humbly with a little black box that can be held in one hand.
Chevrier came to Southern California in 1962 during an economic boom fueled largely by the aerospace industry. A draftsman by training, he found work as a designer of airplane parts at Hi-Tek Corp. in Santa Ana.
The product that turned out to be his big breakthrough was a small box that fit into a parachute pack and deployed the parachute automatically in case a pilot was unconscious or otherwise unable to do so.
When the parent company decided in 1973 to spin off the division that made the device, Chevrier took his $500,000 in savings and stock options, combined it with a bank loan for a like amount and bought the unit himself. His initials--FXC--became the new company’s name.
The little boxes--the automatic parachute releases--proved to be a gold mine. The company would eventually ship 80,000 of them. The original cost was about $300 each; today they go for about $1,200 each.
Each is rigorously tested in FXC’s lab. On a tour through the back rooms, Chevrier pulled aside a worker to show how tests are performed and each scrupulously logged. The system, he said, has to be fail-safe.
Farther back, the Guardian Parachute division sews and packs its products. Sewing chutes is tedious and difficult work that is done by exacting and dedicated seamstresses.
FXC also does a limited amount of civilian business. Some of its equipment is used by sport sky divers, and its parachutes can be found hoisting tourists from ski boats at Mexican resorts.
But most of its work is still done in conjunction with the Defense Department. Though orders for new parachutes and release devices have slowed, the company is making up the lost business by servicing its old equipment.
