NAVERUS INC.

Website: www.naverus.com

Location: Kent

Key People: Dan Gerrity, CEO; Steve Fulton, chief technical officer; Hal Andersen, vice president of flight operations, all co-founders.

Key Innovation: RNP, or required navigational performance, in which Global Positioning System waypoints are programmed into a commercial passenger jet's flight management system so the plane can automatically fly a preprogrammed route to a destination in any weather. The system, which can track a plane's position to within 10 feet, will increase the capacity of the air traffic management system by allowing commercial jets to fly in smaller boxes of cleared airspace, and improve safety by keeping planes clear of dangerous terrain, such as mountaintops hidden in clouds.

Measure of Success: Naverus' RNP technology was implemented system wide for Canada's WestJet - more than 70 approaches at 21 airports in 18 months - and for Qantas in Australia. For Air China, Naverus programmed an approach to the difficult-to-reach airport at Linzhi, Tibet, late last year. Since then, it has won Civil Aviation Authority of China certification for routes into Lhasa, Tibet, and in early February, to Jiuzhaigou. The company received Aviation Week's Technology Breakthrough Award for 2006.

Employees: 30

What's Next: "We're really working hard with the Federal Aviation Administration to establish a base in the U.S.," Gerrity says.

PACIFIC AERO TECH INC.

Website: www.pacificaerotech.com  Location: Kent

Key People: Karen Odegard, president and CEO, joined the company in 1990 and has held the top position since 1993. Michael Singley, vice president of operations, has been with Pacific Aero Tech since his graduation from airframe and power plant training in 1989. Brian Bogue is director of sales and marketing.

Key Innovation: The company maintains a large supply of parts for post warranty repair of window and windshield assemblies for all models of Boeing commercial jets. The company began 20 years ago as an avionics repair company but avionics is now a relatively small part of its business. A customer can get an overhauled window assembly much quicker - about half the 42-day industry average, Boeing says - than if it had to wait for window repairs to be made.

Measure of Success: Pacific Aero Tech employment has grown almost eightfold in the 14 years that Odegard has run the company. Revenues have also risen dramatically, she says, while declining to specify them. Although The Boeing Co. - which named the company one of its top suppliers in 2004 - is one of its five biggest customers, Pacific Aero Tech has added airline customers in Asia, Europe and South America.

Employees: 30

What's Next: Focus on what the company does well, Odegard says. She also sees opportunities to take on repair of other product lines and to add regional and other airlines and military customers.

J.D. OTT CO. INC.

Website: www.jdott.com

Location: Seattle Key People: Bill Cook, corporate vice president and general manager, who has been with the company 40 years; Dean Jendro, production manager; John Shumway, quality control manager. Company president Rex Ott is not involved in the day-to-day operations of the business.

Key Innovation: Flexibility, capacity and quality. Ott supplies Boeing 30,000 precision-machined parts per month for every jetliner model - more parts to Boeing's Portland plant, for example, than any other supplier delivers. The parts range from fasteners that are a hundred to the handful and bolts that attach the jet engines to 737 wings to high-heat-treated chrome parts for landing gear and 80-inch-long stringers that reinforce and stiffen the airframes - 6,000 different part numbers. Other Boeing suppliers, such as Goodrich and Vought, buy from Ott, as does Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, one of the Japanese companies producing major sections of Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner.