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How did you come up with the concept for ATP?
For Bill Daniels, the idea came naturally. As a depression-era youth he was enchanted with the flying machine. He spent hours at airports and once even had the opportunity to meet Howard Hughes when he flew into Palm Beach. At the onset of World War II Bill joined the U.S. Army Air Corp which later became the 14th Air Force. He had the privilege to fly with Chennault as a Flying Tiger in defense of the United States.
Bill celebrated his return home from the war by flying under the Golden Gate Bridge. He met his bride and settled in San Francisco to raise a family of seven children. He was always an entrepreneur, building companies ranging from a plastics company in the 50's to an electronics firm producing alarm systems for BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit). In his spare time, Bill built electronic kits, studied photography and continued to fly whenever possible. And, in between jobs, he was back to his old habits spending time at the airports. It was then that he noticed maintenance documents stacking up in the corner of the maintenance shops because everyone was too busy to do the never-ending filing task to keep the publications current.
Bill saw the kernel of a business, and went out to speak with three top General Aviation manufacturers. He asked what they thought of his idea of building a single source library service to support maintenance shops. Two of the manufacturers expressed no objections, but seemed to think the idea wouldn't fly, so to speak. Then, the old Rockwell company got so excited about the concept that they told Bill they would buy his envisioned service for all their field inspectors. Bill returned to San Francisco energized, and his friend Jerry Draper agreed to fund his idea. Bill then cleverly asked his first and oldest child, Caroline, fresh out of college and eager to work, to help him start Aircraft Technical Publishers. Office space in the financial district of San Francisco was acquired, and with the suggestion to Carol that she hire some people because the maintenance manuals were arriving the next day, the company was born. The year was 1973.
One year later (after operating three shifts 24 hours a day) the company delivered the initial microfiche library product to ATP's first three customers. That product was ATP's first “Complete Light Aircraft” service and included the maintenance technical publications for nearly every General Aviation airframe, engine and propeller under 12,500 lbs., plus all the U.S. FAA regulatory documents. Two years later, the FAA began equipping the Flight Standards District Offices (FSDO's) with the same service, and the rest, as they say, is history.
- Caroline Daniels, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
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