Keeping an airplane flying means finding the right part quickly, often from a supplier across the world. Through the 1990s that search ran on phone calls and fax machines. PartsBase, based in Boca Raton, Florida, built a searchable online database of aviation parts listed by thousands of suppliers. It went public in March 2000, at the height of excitement about business-to-business marketplaces.

One Market for Aircraft Parts

PartsBase bet that the aviation parts trade would move onto a single shared marketplace. Buyers searched its listings and contacted sellers, and members paid subscription fees for access. Its users included airlines, repair stations and parts dealers around the world. The model fit a niche market where speed and accuracy mattered. It could not match the lofty hopes set by the wider B2B boom.

Back to Private Hands

PartsBase priced its IPO at $13 a share in March 2000 and listed on Nasdaq. Its shares fell steeply as the B2B bubble burst. The company kept serving aviation buyers and sellers. In 2003 founder Robert Hammond took PartsBase private. It was one of the few B2B marketplaces of its era to survive in some form, and it kept operating as a private company.

Cover: Daedalus and Icarus, Giulio Romano. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for Daedalus building wings (aircraft parts).