Aerial Timber Applicators Inc.

Aerial Timber Applicators Inc., a small-business Subchapter S corporation based in Cooperstown, North Dakota, provides Single Engine Air Tanker (SEAT) flight services and aerial timber support for wildland fire suppression operations to federal land-management agencies as a prime contractor under total small business set-asides. The vendor operates exclusively as a prime (100% of recent awards) and competes entirely under small business set-asides, anchored by a $400 million single-award IDV with the Bureau of Land Management Idaho Region running through April 2029.

The customer footprint is highly concentrated. The BLM Idaho Region accounts for 47 of 69 total awards and $987.7 million of $998.4 million combined potential value (78% of award count, 99% of potential value). Secondary customers include the Department of Agriculture Forest Service Research Service Rocky Mountain Research Station ($1.3 million), the Forest Service Fire and Aviation Management program ($620 thousand), and the Forest Service proper ($108 thousand). This concentration reflects the vendor's specialized role in regional aerial firefighting infrastructure across the Western United States. The parent IDV, awarded February 8, 2024, mobilizes aviation resources across bases in Idaho, Montana, and New Mexico and extends services to the Bureau of Indian Affairs and other regional agencies as needed.

Recent work includes a $20.664 million exclusive-use SEAT delivery order (June 4, 2024) for Burns, Oregon; Lakeview, Oregon; and Ontario, Oregon, which invoiced $4.8 million in FY2024 across 9,018 contractor hours at a derived rate of $532.55 per hour; a $1.409 million on-call SEAT delivery order (June 10, 2025); and a $284 thousand on-call order (June 18, 2026). Across the SCI-reportable federal services subset, the vendor invoiced $13.9 million over FY2022–FY2024 (FY2022: $6.9 million; FY2023: $1.5 million; FY2024: $5.4 million) with self-performed delivery and no subcontractors reported. SCI-captured workforce scaled from 10.1 FTEs in FY2022 to 3.3 FTEs in FY2023 and recovered to 4.7 FTEs in FY2024. On federal services contracts captured in SCI, government-paid rates ranged from around $227/hr at the 10th percentile to $550/hr at the 90th percentile, with a median of $309/hr. The recompete cliff is minimal — only one award ($284 thousand) completes within the next twenty-four months, with the parent IDV and most delivery orders extending through April 2029.