Evidence-based valuation and advisory across aviation businesses, aircraft, and airport real estate.
Each engagement pairs doctoral real estate research with aviation-specific expertise, delivered for the people who underwrite, litigate, and invest in aviation businesses and real estate.
Valuation Takes Flight performs business valuations for privately held aviation companies, including opinions of value for employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) and their annual updates. We also value shares for stock buy-ins, buy-sell agreements, and internal ownership transfers among partners and family members. Each engagement is built around the value drivers specific to aviation operators, from airport leasehold terms to fleet residuals to FAA certificate standing.
Replacement cost analysis and insurance-to-value studies for hangar owners, lenders, and carriers. Helps ensure adequate coverage, supports loss adjustment positions, and reviews insurance schedules at renewal. Delivered as cost consulting, not as a USPAP appraisal.
Fair market rent studies for airport hangars and ground leases. Valuation Takes Flight sets supportable rental rates using comparable lease evidence and a rate of return on underlying land value, the analysis airport sponsors and tenants rely on for rent resets, lease renewals, through the fence agreements, and FAA rate and rental structure compliance.
An independent investment memo on a specific airport concession, secondary-airport stake, FBO, or MRO opportunity, written from the asset-valuation perspective the seller's deck won't give you.
Independent reviews of a fund's reported returns that account for the structural biases unique to hangar portfolios: appraisal smoothing, IRR manipulation, lease-term amortization distortion, and GP-LP information asymmetry. We serve LPs, GPs preparing for institutional raises, and pension funds evaluating aviation infrastructure allocations.
Retained expert testimony for hangar valuation disputes including condemnation, eminent domain, lease termination, and insurance coverage litigation.
The Index closes the gap that has frustrated every appraiser, airport sponsor, and FBO acquirer working in this niche: the first quarterly market-rent benchmark for US general aviation hangar storage.
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Source-grounded calculators, maps, and trackers for anyone who owns, buys, finances, or litigates an aircraft hangar or airport property.
Estimate what an aircraft hangar is worth using the income approach, airport quality tiers, and the ground-lease reversion most valuations miss.
Open the estimator →What it costs to build a hangar by type, door, systems, and region, with a full component breakdown and how cost compares to value.
Open the calculator →Known and suspected firefighting-foam contamination at U.S. airports, with risk tiers for buyers, lenders, and FBO transactions.
Open the map →87 verified U.S. hangar and airport condemnation, inverse-condemnation, and avigation-easement cases with award data.
Open the tracker →A running log of U.S. hangar and airport valuation rulings, 2021 to 2026: property tax appeals, takings, and FAA Part 16 rent disputes, each tied to a primary source.
Open the tracker →Most aviation market data tracks aircraft. Our indexes track the companies that maintain, fly, and service them, built entirely from public data and published each quarter. The read is reported by segment, so it applies whether you run an MRO, an FBO, a parts business, or a flight school.
The story this quarter is the maintenance crunch. Roughly 70% of the pre-owned business-jet fleet for sale is now 16 years or older, and the certificated mechanic workforce is aging toward retirement. The scarcity index sits about 14% above its 2020 level, which is durable pricing power for MRO and repair-station owners and the single biggest driver of the business-value index this quarter.
The definitive academic reference for aircraft hangar valuation, covering the federal regulatory framework, airport ground lease structures, and the cost, income, and sales-comparison approaches adapted for aviation-specific conditions. Dedicated treatment of PFAS contamination, USPAP-compliant reporting, Standard 3 review, and specialty properties including T-hangars, FBOs, MRO facilities, vertiports, and sustainable aviation fuel infrastructure.
Grounded in aeronautical expertise, doctoral real estate research, and a credential depth unmatched in the field. Required reading for aviation lenders, appraisers, airport authorities, and institutional investors entering the hangar market.
Dr. Clay W. Carter holds the DBA, MBA, MS, CFA, FRM, CAIA, and CIPM designations. He serves as Assistant Professor of the Practice at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, where his research focuses on hangar valuations. He has authored a textbook on the subject along with several other aviation-related books.
As founder of Valuation Takes Flight LLC, he applies this research to consulting services for aviation lenders, airport authorities, private equity funds, and litigation attorneys who need rigorous analytical support alongside traditional appraisal work.
Rigorous analytical support for the people who underwrite, litigate, and invest in aviation real estate.Begin an Engagement
Reach out to discuss litigation support, a ground lease analysis, or institutional performance verification.
Additional books exploring aviation economics, markets, and investment history.