Pursuing a model career in Hicksville
At Creative Models in Hicksville, Bill DiNoia and Brian Aubin make models and prototypes. Behind them is an E-2D Hawkeye at a tenth scale. (Aug. 2, 2010) Credit: Uli Seit
What with models of airplanes and airplane wings scattered around desks and workbenches, Creative Models and Prototypes in Hicksville might pass for a toy shop. But the design and manufacturing company across the street from the old Grumman plant is a serious place of business.
Here, in the industrial heart of Hicksville, Bill DiNoia, Brian Aubin and their staff of seven spend weeks and months bent over tables crafting models of fighter jets and an assortment of other types of planes they make for what is now Northrop Grumman Corp., other aerospace companies and commercial businesses.
The models are the kind people see when they walk into the lobby of an aerospace company and look into shiny display cases. The models are also used in wind tunnel tests, and sometimes must be flown to prove certain aerodynamic concepts.
Models can take weeks or even months to make, and some must be handcrafted.
DiNoia and Aubin both worked in the model shop of the former Grumman company. They left in 1994, when Northrop Corp. of Los Angeles acquired Grumman. They were told they could have other jobs with the new company, but in Florida or California. They decided to stay on Long Island and opened Creative Models the day after they walked out of Grumman, where they had been since the early 1980s.
This year has been tough for Creative Models, as aerospace companies pare back budgets.
But, DiNoia, 59, of Levittown, said there is more than dollars and cents involved here.
"I knew as a young child this is what I had to pursue," he said in the crowded shop the other day. "I knew that when I was 5 years old. What I wanted to build you couldn't find in a plastic kit."
Said Aubin, 52, of Islip: "We're doing what we love to do. We could do something we hate and make more money, but . . . "
The company now also works with inventor Eric Koenig, president of Koe Lab of Huntington. Koenig recently designed a unique putter for golf. Creative Models built it for him.
Creative Models sales are between $400,000 to $500,000 annually. But profitability has been a challenge in the recession.
DiNoia said he misses the Grumman days. "Everybody needed to come to the model shop," he said. But I'm still doing the same thing now and I'm happy."
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