Start with an empty hangar at an out-of-the-way North Carolina airport. Add a pilot who knows how to make beer. Then install the equipment to brew that beer in large quantities. Attract thousands of thirsty and loyal customers mostly drawn by word-of-mouth recommendations and you have the back story for Aviator Brewery, one of the most unusual craft beer operations in the country.
Aviator Brewery started in 2008 in a hangar at an airport outside the town of Fuquay-Varina. Today, after outgrowing its production facilities twice, the brewery has moved uptown to a new five-acre business campus that will eventually include five bars, a concert venue, and a breakfast restaurant.
One of those bars will be housed in the fuselage of a historic C-54 transport that flew in the Berlin Airlift.
The man behind the plan to make Aviator Brewery a nationally-known brand is Mark Doble, a Cirrus SR22 pilot and longtime craft brewer. His company currently markets 24 different beers and in its new facility will also distill spirits beginning with vodka, gin, and bourbon.
At Aviator Brewery nearly everything has an aviation theme, said Chief Financial Officer Buddy Everhart, a man who used to jump out of perfectly good airplanes for a living as an 82nd Airborne Division paratrooper.
That’s why it made sense to use the fuselage of a historic C-54 for one of their bars.
The aircraft, named the “Spirit of Freedom,” was part of the 1948-1949 Berlin Airlift that saved West Berlin from the Russian military blockade during the Cold War.
The Spirit of Freedom was damaged beyond repair in 2021 when a tornado hit the airport in Walterboro, South Carolina, where the C-54 was undergoing an avionics refit.
According to Doble, he got the plane by making a donation to the Berlin Airlift Historical Foundation. He had it dismantled and the wings, tail, and fuselage were trucked to the new brewery site.
The fuselage, minus wings and tail, is now mounted on concrete supports and ready for interior work.
The interior conversion to a bar should be completed by the end of 2025, according to Doble.
Doble, a former U.S. Army Signal Corps officer, began learning to fly in 1997 while in the service in Tampa, Florida. During that time he began work on a Mustang II kitplane which he eventually finished.
After he got out of the service in 2008 he was working for a major computer firm and found the job a “no fun, around-the-clock grind.”
So, in his hangar at the airport that is now Southern Wake Regional Airport (5W5) in Raleigh, North Carolina, he drew on his longtime home beer-making skills and built a brewery. An overflow of people on Friday and Saturday nights began turning out and eventually a move followed to a larger location in a local technology park.
“That was 2010 to 2025,” Doble said. “And we moved here this year.”
The main restaurant and central bar and dining area at the new five-acre site opened April 1.
“People like us because we are different,” Doble said. “We are a fun business and we are a manufacturing business. We take raw ingredients and make a product.”
In addition to the new business site, Aviator Brewing runs three aviation-themed restaurants in Fuquay-Varina: Aviator SmokeHouse BBQ Restaurant, Aviator Tap House & Kitchen, and Aviator Pizzeria & Beer Shop.
The Aviator Brewery beer can label designs reveal a firm with a sense of humor.
Among the best-selling beers are Devil’s Tramping Ground Tripel, which promises to grow hair in places you don’t want, Hogwild India Pale Ale, Wide Open Red Irish Ale, Black Mamba Stout Bohemian style Pilsner, and 3Bones Kolsch, which the brewery says is preferred by pirates everywhere.
Plus, there is Double Ugly Rye Pale Ale and also Saison de Aviator for easy drinking while harvesting the fields, according to the brewery.
Once a year Doble, Everhart, and the brewing crew produce Devil’s Nightmare Imperial Tripel, the big brother to the Tramping Ground Tripel with 14.99% alcohol content.
Everhart, the former paratrooper with 64 jumps to his credit, said the firm’s Night Jump brew is, naturally, his favorite.
“Yes, I named it,” he said with a knowing smile.
According to Doble, Aviator Brewing is already known regionally by craft beer drinkers.
“And we are working to expand brand recognition,” he said. “The plan is to open our own stores throughout North and South Carolina.”
The new brewing facility will have a capacity of more than 1 million gallons yearly or approximately 34,000 barrels of beer.
The closest airport to the Aviator Brewing Company is 5W5, about seven miles from the brewery. The runway was closed by NOTAM at the time of my visit and pilot comments on ForeFlight speak of poor approaches and substandard runway conditions. However, efforts are underway to renovate the airport.
Raleigh Executive Jetport at Sanford-Lee County (KTTA) is about 18 air miles distant if you’d like to fly in to check out Aviator Brewing Company.
For more information: AviatorBrew.com or 919-567-BEER (2337).
