ANN Talks With Chris Hearne, Sr VP of Engineering and Programs, Textron Aviation

Designed in partnership with FedEx, the Cessna Sky Courier was on display at Oshkosh and we talked to Chris Hearne, Sr VP of Engineering and Programs at Textron Aviation to get more details.

“FedEx has an order of 50, plus an order for 50 options. Our relationship goes back to the early 80’s and we have just embraced that over the years and having them at the very beginning of this program give us that customer input that has just been invaluable to the team. They truly have their fingerprints all over this design,” says Hearne. “The capabilities really on the cargo variant, it can hold about 6,000 pounds of payload capability. The game changer is that they don't have to break down the shipping containers that they have now, they can just take the shipping containers from one of their larger aircraft directly onto the SkyCourier.”

The capability is 200 kts, between 200 and 900 nautical miles depending on the weight and the company is working on certifying a passenger variant, which can hold 19 passengers.

“Today is just exciting to have the Sky Courier here, also just in the middle of our flight test program we were able to come up here for a day and half and show everybody at the show how impressive this aircraft is. Like I pointed out earlier just to see the rugged gear, the very large cargo, single point fueling, Garmin G1000 NXi up front, a very large flight deck, and then as we open the cargo door, how large it is inside. It’s just exciting to be here with the airplane,” Hearne concludes.

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