Three respected professionals, with extensive experience in commercial aviation, financial services and real estate, announced they have formed a new investment firm focused exclusively on the commercial aviation industry.

Crane Aircraft Partners, based in California and Michigan, will provide multiple investment options for investors, including direct investments in commercial aviation assets and the first aviation focused equity long/short hedge fund.

Crane Aircraft Partners is led by Robert Crane, who has more than 25 years of experience in commercial aircraft leasing and trading, Gary Ran, who is the chairman and founder of one of the nation’s leading independent investment firms, Telemus Capital Partners and Gary Weisman, the owner of General Worldwide Aviation.

The three have previously invested together in a number of aviation transactions. In the past five years alone, the firm’s partners have been investors in, and lenders on, commercial aviation assets valued at $100 million and have raised approximately $25 million in equity and debt capital.