Moves From Blog To Page On Cessna.com

ANN received tips from several curious News-Spies last month, noting Cessna had taken down its webpage for the upcoming Cessna Model 162 SkyCatcher. Requests by ANN for information from Cessna on the matter were met with, essentially, "no comment."

Well, the SkyCatcher site is back... but it's not the same animal as before.

As of Monday, gone is the previous blog-style forum launched upon the SkyCatcher's introduction at Oshkosh 2007. That site was a deliberately youth-oriented move, intended to show Cessna's new direction for the aircraft. It also allowed commenters to post questions, comments, and criticism (more on that in a minute) regarding the LSA in a lightly-moderated format.

In its place, is a traditional page on Cessna's website, under the heading for Single Engine Pistons. The page (shown below) follows to the letter the company's layout for the pages of its other SEP offerings, including the newly-acquired Cessna (nee Columbia) 350 and 400.

One could certainly argue the move is a natural one for Cessna, perhaps a move to better align the SkyCatcher under the corporate Cessna banner, rather than as a stand-alone product. But the change brings with it a curious development, as well.

"We now invite you to submit your comment to our site editors for consideration of online posting, much like traditional publishing," Cessna writes on the "Comments & Posts" section of the new SkyCatcher site. "This will give us a better opportunity to respond with our own comments on a more regular basis."

That's a notable shift from Cessna's policy of relative openness on the original SkyCatcher blog... which, as ANN reported last month, was deluged with comments critical of the planemaker's decision to build the plane in China, for reassembly in the United States.

While the change in editorial policy might send a certain message to some, Cessna appears eager and willing to continue to entertain differing viewpoints on its choice.

"You can rest assured that views representative of all sides of an issue will be chosen for display on the site by our editorial staff," Cessna adds on the new website.

FMI: http://se.cessna.com/skycatcher/index.chtml