7 November 2008
The annual Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association Expo is currently under way in San Jose, California, and Cessna is using the event to counter <a href=’http://www.flyer.co.uk/news/newsfeed.php?artnum=812′ target=’_blank’>stories about the economic downturn</a> and how it is affecting the company.
Although not denying that there is a slowdown, which has created a “difficult business environment”, CEO Jack Pelton said at the Expo that he is “encouraged by brisk activity from new and existing propeller fleet operators placing almost 200 orders for 2009 production aircraft.”
Among the long-term orders are over 1,000 for the C162 SkyCatcher, which is on track for first deliveries in the second half of 2009. The SkyCatcher programme’s future was in a certain amount of doubt earlier this year <a href=’http://www.flyer.co.uk/news/newsfeed.php?artnum=792′ target=’_blank’>when the prototype crashed</a>, but Cessna says that the first production model has now become the ‘primary test aircraft’, while it has assigned another airframe to the ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) static testing.
One of the most controversial aspects of the SkyCatcher programme is that the aircraft will be built in China. Cessna reports that: “Production assembly jigs and tooling and detail tooling to support fabrication are complete and in place at Shenyang Aircraft Corporation (SAC)”. Cessna will ship raw materials, engine and avionics from the US to Shenyang, and it has “on-site personnel in place to provide ongoing oversight for quality assurance”.
The first aircraft out of the Chinese plant is expected to roll out in the second quarter of 2009.
Of the 1,000 orders for the SkyCatcher taken so far, 35 percent are reckoned to be from outside the US, and half of those are from Europe.
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• Cessna also says that its new ‘Next-Generation Flight Training’ is ‘taking shape’. The project, which is web-based, aims to help pilots improve their skills and expand their ability set
• It’s almost a year since Cessna bought the Columbia production line, turning the Columbia 350 and 400 aircraft into the Cessna C350 and C400. The company is offering free ‘Synthetic Vision Technology on select 350 and 400 models scheduled for delivery in [the remaining part of] 2008’.
