AirMark began as a dream in early 1990 when representatives of Boeing’s painting department approached AirMark founder, John Lash, with the idea of replacing their slow-moving and costly reciprocal cutters with high-speed and economical vinyl cutters. That brilliant insight seemed simple enough. But as it was soon discovered, vinyl and vinyl cutter technology had not evolved to the degree that it could meet the unique performance standards required in aircraft painting.

John spent the next two years working with vinyl and vinyl cutter manufactures to further develop products that could meet the objectives needed to adapt vinyl technology to the aircraft marking industry. He was successful, and in 1992 AirMark Incorporated was born. Within just a few short years, AirMark became the preferred solution for the world’s leading aircraft makers, painters and restorers in private industry, the US military and numerous state Air National Guard divisions.

In 2000, AirMark merged with Summa, makers of the advanced tangential-blade cutters that began the vinyl aircraft stencil revolution. The merger brought together the world leaders in aircraft stencil knowhow and advanced vinyl cutter technology. It also merged Summa’s vast engineering resources, allowing AirMark to rapidly deploy new technologies to meet the evolving needs of the aircraft marking industry.

As we celebrate our 20th year, we will continue to look to the future with the same philosophy we founded our company on: make aircraft painting more efficient and affordable.