Progressive Aerodyne

1995-2007: 520 Clifton St, Orlando, FL 32808, USA.

Progressive Aerodyne was founded in 1991 by Kerry Richter and his business partners, Wayne Richter and Paige Lynette. With a long family history of building ultralight amphibious aircrafts, the company took the opportunity to create a new amphibious aircraft design and named it the Searey. Thus, the Searey took form and began flying in November 1992. 

 

The next year, the Searey Classic was introduced to the general public and was very well received, assuring two years worth of orders for the company.

 

Progressive Aerodyne is a family business of Kerry Richter, and three generations of his family, together with their friend and partner Paige Lynette, all work in the company that has produced over 400 flying aircraft.

 

In 2009 Kerry is the President of the company and was in full time research and development of improvements to the SeaRey and of new aircraft designs for the future. A full time aeronautical engineer, Damir Blazevic has over 30 years engineering experience, the last 19of which were with Airbus including on the Airbus 380 design.  Damir has personally built over 9 aircraft, many of his own design.  Damir’s specialty is quality control.  The team works with state of the art computers and aircraft design software to ensure airworthiness and compliance with aviation standards.

In January 2010, a significantly improved model, the Searey LSX, was introduced to the aviation community. To date, close to 600 Searey Kits had been delivered to customers and over 500 are flying worldwide.

 

In May 2010, the company moved their headquarters from Orlando to Tavares, Florida, to facilitate its growth. A year later, Adam Yang, also a Searey pilot, owner, and builder, joined Progressive Aerodyne as CEO.

 

In June 2014, Searey expanded it global reach with the opening of its sales office in Shanghai, China, to support the sale of Searey Light Sport Amphibious Airplanes. The Searey was first presented to the China market at air shows in 2009, where interest in Searey airplanes was overwhelming. Since then, Progressive Aerodyne participated in subsequent air shows and invested in research and marketing in order to advance the Searey in China. The company is currently working with Chinese aviation authorities to gain certification of the Searey. The Shanghai office to manage all marketing and sales and work with government authorities in China.