For most of the last 20 years, the U.S. Navy has been stopping at National Jets to park its planes and buy aircraft fuel.

That is because National Jets, on the north side of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, has underbid competitors and won three-year supply contracts with the Navy. The contracts let virtually any type of Navy aircraft fuel up at National Jets.

Even though those contracts are won strictly on fuel prices, National Jets provides the Navy with more than a fill-up, said the company’s vice president, T. Russell Boy.

For starters, National Jets provides free parking space for aircraft.

Considering private jets may pay up to $50 to stay overnight at an aviation company, that’s a good deal, said Rick Palcic, a Navy master chief stationed in Norfolk, Va., with the HM-14 Helicopter Squadron.

Every now and then, the Navy will bring an aircraft carrier into Port Everglades, requiring up to a half dozen C-9 transport jets to park at National Jets to pick up and drop off sailors.

“When the Kennedy came in, we had the ramp covered with C-9s,” Boy said.

Or, the Navy may bring a squadron of helicopters to roost at National Jets while it conducts military exercises offshore, as it recently did with a handful of mine-sweeping MH-53 Echo choppers.

Otherwise, National Jets provides whatever odds and ends the Navy may need.

“If the Navy calls and says, ‘we need a forklift,’ or ‘we need a tug,’ we give it to them,” Boy said.

But Jet A-1 fuel is the name of the game. The fuel used by virtually all Navy aircraft, from A-6 fighter jets to heavy transports.

When the Navy seeks bidders for its contract, it estimates how much fuel it will need over a three-year period. That generally runs into hundreds of thousands of gallons. One helicopter alone may need to be filled up with 2,000 gallons.

While Boy would not say specifically what price he is charging the Navy per gallon, he said he sells Jet A-1 fuel for $1.99 retail.

The price is negotiable, depending on the amount of fuel purchased, Boy said.

“Every deal is different. It’s not like going to the local service station,” he said.

National Jets actually is just one of several companies owned by the Boy family’s Carolina Group.

The group’s 19-acre compound also is home to Business Air Center, a fixed- base operation; National Jet Services, which provides maintenance to private, commercial and military aircraft; National Jets Inc., which operates Lear jets for charter; and Florida Aircraft Transport, a cargo handling operation.

Boy, 45, of Plantation, was a crew chief on helicopters in Vietnam. He and his uncle, Tom Boy, president of National Jets, oversee the various operations.

Russell Boy’s father, Carl, and Carl’s brother, James, started an aviation company in the 1950s that flew cargo from Miami to the Caribbean.

The company moved around Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, making various buildings its headquarters and flourishing.

Then, in 1972, tragedy struck. Carl Boy and two sons, Dick and Bob, were killed when they flew their Lockheed Learstar into a thunderstorm over Palm Beach County.

These days, Boy spends his time in a comfortable second-story office, adorned with photos of aircraft and racing cars, in the National Jets hangar. A licensed pilot, he says he would like to fly more.

“But I just don’t have the time.”