Company History

Peter Tanis invented and patented a product to solve the serious problem of starting piston aircraft engines in cold weather. He sold his first engine heater in 1973. He expanded the business until his death in 2000. Peter was succeed by Gary Schmidt who ran the company until his untimely death in an aircraft accident in 2004. The company continued to operate on its own partially due to the leadership and experience of 30+ year employee Linda Cole and Gary's wife, Sandy. In July of 2006, Bob Krueger purchased the majority of the company along with Linda who purchased a minority share.

Tanis continues selling directly to aircraft owners as well as through FBO'S and OEM accounts. Tanis continues to be the leading supplier of aircraft engine preheaters throughout the world. To maintain its leadership position, it invests heavily in research and development. Currently the company holds several patents for various aviation products. Most of our components and products are FAA-PMA certified. We are a small firm expanding to accommodate a growing customer base and take pride in very high quality control on all of our products.

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QUALITY PEOPLE CREATING QUALITY PRODUCTS FOR AVIATION.

Ever since Peter Tanis invented the first internal aircraft engine preheater, he understood that creating a product that could meet high quality of manufacturing necessary to meet aviation safety standards, requires good, qualified people. He also understood that along with good products, outstanding customer service could also be accomplished through friendly people that thoroughly understood aviation and aircraft engine preheating. Peter's work has become the "Gold Standard" of aircraft preheat.

Gary Schmidt took over the company and was passionate about his customers. He enjoyed traveling to shows and building up the company's products and image. He was a good man and his short time with the company made a very large, lasting impression.

Bob Krueger has re-established our position as the gold standard of preheat. Tanis is THE expert on cold-weather products for aircraft and we are working hard to simplify our product offering to make it easy for our customers to get what they need. The new logo, more efficient catalog and this website are just some of the testaments to the work we are doing to make Tanis' service even better.

Drag your mouse over a picture to meet the folks behind the quality Tanis product line. 

Linda is Vice President and also responsible for the supervision of all manufacturing operation and has been with the company almost since inception. Dirk, Engineer,  is responsible for research and development as well as manufacturing process and FAA/PMA requirements of our products.  Melody is the office manager of the company and does contract sewing. Birdie is one of our contract sewers, provides quality Tanis covers. Sara is our Manufacturing Inspector, Kim Selvog, Roger, and Becky work in manufacturing.