Academic Research. Financial Rigor.
Aviation Expertise.
Delivering evidence-based valuation and advisory services for the world's most complex aviation real estate assets.
Each service addresses a critical gap in the aviation real estate market, delivering the analytical depth that traditional appraisers and aviation consultants simply cannot replicate.
Retained expert testimony for hangar valuation disputes including condemnation, eminent domain, lease termination, and insurance coverage litigation.
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.
Financial and market analysis for proposed hangar development or acquisition.
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.
Consulting-framed due diligence for buyers and aviation lenders evaluating hangar assets. Covers ground lease review, reversion risk analysis, FBO business enterprise value separation, market positioning, and environmental considerations including PFAS and AFFF exposure. Supports your underwriting without serving as a USPAP appraisal.
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 conducting due diligence, GPs preparing for institutional capital raises, and pension funds evaluating aviation infrastructure allocations.
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.
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 a leading 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.
Whether you need litigation support, a ground lease analysis, or institutional performance verification, the conversation starts here.
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