Building the World’s Finest Aerobatic Aircraft with Josh Richards of Game Composites

Summary

On this episode of The Bentonville Beacon, host James Bell is joined by Josh Richards, COO at Game Composites LLC, an aviation and aerospace components manufacturer. Josh’s background is rooted in technical excellence, with experience in highly-regulated industries such as aerospace and nuclear power. Throughout the episode, James and Josh discuss Game Composites, the GB1 GameBird, and why Bentonville is the perfect place for advanced manufacturing.

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Show Notes:

(1:27) Introduction to Josh Richards

(1:44) Josh’s Passion for Aviation

(4:17) About Game Composites

(7:21) About the GB1 GameBird

(10:34) The GameBird Building Process

(13:21) Blazing a Trail for Advanced Manufacturing

(18:50) Exposing Customers to the GameBird

(21:06) Growth Plan for Game Composites

(23:07) Game Composites Employee Opportunities

(26:48) Why Bentonville Is Ideal for Game Composites

(31:54) The Bentonville Experience

(34:45) Final Questions and Thoughts

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‍Links

James Bell

Josh Richards

Game Composites LLC

Quotes

“So part of the history that’s important is that the company was never really just founded to build GameBirds. It was always about creating, you know, being a significant player in aviation manufacturing. Maybe not a Boeing right out of the gate, but somebody who makes a difference and really makes a splash in the environment.” - Josh Richards, (5:51)

“We see a lot of customers now that want a really custom experience. So, one of the challenges of running a manufacturing business with an operations mindset is how do you give a custom experience, but in a repeatable fashion.” - Josh Richards, (11:33)

“The expansion does a couple things for us. It helps us vertically integrate some of our products that go into the aircraft. We want to build as much stuff as we can in Arkansas. On the other side of it, we’ve got big plans for the company on what’s next. We’re working on what we call GB2, so the second iteration or second version of aircraft for Game Composites.” - Josh Richards, (21:27)