The first time Sean Flynn flew to his company’s construction project on a remote island in the Pacific Northwest, he landed in a grass field. A year later, he took off from a newly-paved, 3,000-foot runway.
“We built that runway, a mass timber hangar and all the infrastructure on that island in about five months,” said Flynn, CEO of Silver Maple Construction. “We shipped everything from our woodworks shop in Vermont. Built every wall, every fixture off-site, and then got it over by barge. That’s what makes us fast.”
Silver Maple is based in Middlebury, VT, and has carved out a niche building high-end homes, aircraft hangars, FBOs and commercial buildings. Flynn founded the business in 2006, with one friend and a pickup truck. Today, a team of nearly 100 carpenters, plumbers, electricians and other tradespeople lead complex construction projects up and down the East Coast and throughout the Pacific Northwest.
“…if I wasn’t flying myself, it would’ve added weeks to the timeline.”
Sean Flynn CEO, Silver Maple Construction
Flynn traveled between Silver Maple’s Vermont headquarters and the forested island nearly 10 times during the project, flying in a Cirrus SR22T. “I was the lead carpenter on that project, so if I wasn’t flying myself, it would’ve added weeks to the timeline,” said Flynn. “It’s a remote island with a short strip. The only other way to get there is two ferries or a float plane.”
After flying across the country, Flynn stopped at airports along the way to pick up Silver Maple’s project managers heading to the job site.
That mobility, a dedication to speed and top-quality design, makes Silver Maple successful wherever clients need them.
High-End Hangars
“It’s all about mobility, right? We now have customers asking us to build at multiple airports, and that’s what we want,” said Evan Herron, former director of aviation construction: “To find customers who love aviation and do all their projects across the continent.”
Airport construction means layers of federal, state and local oversight, and another focus that makes Silver Maple fast is wrapping up the paperwork quickly. “A lot of builders submit their forms and then just kind of wait. But that’s not us at all,” said Herron. “We go to the city’s offices as often as we need to, to get the sign-off.”
Silver Maple’s first aviation project was a big one: building a state-of-the-art, 35,000-square-foot hangar in Concord, NH, in 13 months.
The tight timeline drove a pivotal decision, building the entire hangar out of wood. “We were able to source wood so much quicker than steel,” said Herron, “and it became this sustainability exercise.”
The project became the world’s first net-zero, mass timber hangar, Flynn said. Its spine is a 210-foot clear-span wood truss, the largest Silver Maple’s suppliers had ever built.
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Contractor-Led Design
With all of Concord Municipal Airport (CON) on conservation land, the sustainability features – including a Safespill floor that whisks away engine oil and avoids the use of toxic fire-suppression foam – helped secure all the approvals.
“What Evan and his team pulled off in 13 months, from the initial sketch I did on a napkin, to where we’re standing now, is unheard-of in this industry,” said Flynn. “They camped out in people’s offices to get the permits we needed, months ahead of the normal timeline.”
With the striking appearance and the sustainability factors of mass timber, more clients have requested mass timber hangars and FBOs. Silver Maple has also built airport buildings with water reclamation systems, rooftop solar, electric vehicle charging and other features that lower emissions. “It’s still a hurdle, because there’s a cost delta that owners have to buy into,” said Project Manager Benjamin Adjami, “but I do see the business aviation industry going this way. More clients want these eco-friendly projects.”
Silver Maple calls its proactive approach to permitting and assembling a team of subcontractors, “contractor-led design and build.” They also save time by “panelizing” construction and assembling whole sections of the hangar’s wood walls offsite.
“You should be able to call us and say, ‘I want this size hangar in this location,’ and that should be your last phone call,” said Flynn. “We keep it lean, and we have a team of multitalented people who stay on the project, all the way through. We want to be the ‘easy button’ for this kind of work.”
Business aviation pilot and CEO Sean Flynn (right) founded Silver Maple Construction in Middlebury, VT, in 2006.
Special Projects Unit
Like Flynn, most of Silver Maple’s project managers are carpenters or tradespeople by background.
While the first and second quarters of the year keep him busy with the sales cycle, during the second half, he tries to “wear the belt” one week a month.
Having a CEO/carpenter/pilot earned Silver Maple a project to build BETA Technologies’ network of charging stations at airports for BETA’s advanced air mobility (AAM) aircraft.
“We’ve become this sort of special projects operating unit,” explained Herron, “that can go into any airport, knock out the job, hand you the keys, and move onto the next one.”
With much of the team in Vermont, and several of Silver Maple’s project managers working remotely across the East Coast, they have found it ideal to use Baltimore/Washington International Airport (BWI) as a staging area for meeting new customers. Project managers will airline to BWI, Flynn will land on the general aviation side of the airfield, pick them up in the Cirrus, and the team will head out together.
“Sean uses the plane to meet new clients and earn that business. His ability to pop out to airports all over the country is really helpful.”
Benjamin Adjami Project Manager
“It’s essential when you’re trying to get projects off the ground, to walk the site and have those in-person conversations,” said Adjami. “Sean uses the plane to meet new clients and earn that business. His ability to pop out to airports all over the country is really helpful.”
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With a primary focus on safety, Flynn says he logs around 450 flight hours annually and undergoes recurrent training every year.
Safety Decisions
All that mobility, as a CEO, makes safety a top consideration for Flynn, as a pilot. After taking off from that island airfield in the Pacific Northwest, he flew the Cirrus back to the East Coast in a single day, with one tech stop.
“I was at FL250, I had the tailwind and supplemental oxygen, it was awesome,” said Flynn. Still, he knew that after a long day, he did not want to push it. He knew he would be arriving at night. Instead of landing at Middlebury, close to home, he filed a flight plan for a nearby airport with approach lights.
“There are a number of things I do from a safety perspective,” said Flynn. “One is simply the fact that I am flying all the time. In terms of currency, I get somewhere around 450 hours a year, many in IMC. And of course, I go to recurrent training every year.”
Flynn also cites the SR22T’s safety features, including its anti-icing system, its airframe parachute and avionics, which help with diverting options. He recently earned his commercial license and is planning his next goal with his instructor.
“I need to figure out what my next endorsement is going to be. It might be twin-engine,” said Flynn. “I don’t know if I’ll ever get there, but there’s value in constantly training.”
Learn more about Silver Maple Construction at silvermaple.com.
Silver Maple Claims World’s First Net-Zero Mass Timber Hangar
In 2023, Silver Maple Construction was asked to build a 35,000-square-foot hangar in Concord, NH, in just 13 months. Wood was faster to secure than steel, so Silver Maple ran it by the corporate client, and ended up building what it describes as the world’s first net-zero mass timber hangar.
“Our client came to us and said they needed a large hangar with a zero-carbon footprint and they needed it in a year,” said CEO Sean Flynn. “We were excited to build them this green building that’s really a showpiece.”
Mass timber construction uses large beams made up of a cross-lattice of many smaller pieces of wood. Another term is glue-laminated timber.
“When you make a column out of these smaller pieces of wood, it’s exponentially stronger than one piece of timber,” said Evan Herron, former director of aviation construction. And it is highly fire resistant.
“They’ve done all these fire ratings … and it won’t burn, because it’s so densely packed it will actually perform better in a fire than a steel beam.”
By some calculations, the hangar accounts for negative carbon emissions because carbon is sequestered in the wood construction, and newly planted trees for making mass timber remove additional carbon from the atmosphere.
“Companies that have sustainability goals fall in love with this stuff,” Herron said, “not only for the sustainability, but also for the aesthetic. The hangar really becomes a showpiece.”
Snapshot
Aircraft: One Cirrus SR22T
Base: Located at Vermont’s Middlebury State Airport (6B0)
Personnel: Sean Flynn is the CEO and pilot.
International Business Aviation Council Ltd.
