Business news with words aircraft+department+general. 2 news.

Willard Walpole got his start in business by buying and selling surplus airplane parts in the years after World War II. The company he founded, Wilco Inc., has grown into a multiline distributor, selling general aviation aircraft parts, motorcycle parts and a specialty line of strong, lightweight metal alloy called 1430 steel sheet and plate metal. The company is now owned by his son and daughter, Floyd Walpole and Muriel Walpole. Floyd Walpole joined the company after a career that included time at QuikTrip, the Derby refinery and, finally, the Wichita Police Department. He retired as a financial crimes detective and came back to run the family company when his father's health began to fail. About two years ago, Mike Hattrup joined the company as a sales manager after operating his aircraft parts business for 25 years.

THE US trade deficit narrowed more than forecast in August as exports climbed to a record for a sixth consecutive month. The gap shrank 2.4 percent to US$57.6 billion, the smallest since January, from a revised US$59 billion in July, the Commerce Department said yesterday in Washington. Foreign companies, benefiting from growing demand and a weaker dollar that's made American goods less expensive, have been snapping up Boeing Co aircraft and General Electric Co turbines. Rising exports will help keep the economy from falling into recession even as the housing slump persists. "The dollar is continuing to decline, which is giving a huge boost to competitiveness," Nigel Gault, chief US economist at Global Insight Inc in Lexington, Massachusetts, said before the report. Economists had forecast the deficit would narrow to US$59 billion, from a previously reported US$59.2 billion in July, according to the median of 74 forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey. Prices of goods