And Showed Off Some New Technology

Textron says its Cessna Aircraft and Bell Helicopter divisions did some pretty darn good business at last week's NBAA convention in Las Vegas.

During the show, Cessna unveiled its two newest aircraft: the Cessna Citation CJ1+ and CJ2+ --which represent the next generations of the company's popular Citation CJ1 and CJ2 lines of light business jets. The CJ1+, the successor to the market-pacing Citation CJ1, offers customers heightened performance, new integrated avionics and a host of enhanced features and standard equipment. The CJ2+ provides customers with the most advanced avionics suite in its class, as well as increased payload, an upgraded engine and a variety of enhanced standard features.

In total, Cessna received 41 customer orders for its Citation business jets. The company also booked six customer orders for Caravan turbo-prop aircraft and, before the show's official start, the company pre-sold 22 orders for the newly announced CJ2+ aircraft. These orders were included in the company's third quarter backlog.

Bell Helicopter booked 12 customer orders for aircraft across its commercial helicopter line -- largely for its popular 427i model, introduced earlier this year, and for the fast-selling Bell 407 and 430 models.

"Cessna once again led new product announcements at NBAA in the small to mid-size business jet market. In addition, Bell also saw the best sales results in more than five years at the show," said Lewis B. Campbell, Textron's Chairman, President and CEO. "Our success at this year's event not only reflects significant improvements in two of our most critical end-markets, but represents the passion, innovation and ingenuity of literally thousands of Textron employees who design, build and market aircraft and related products that consistently exceed customer needs and expectations."

Cessna's CJ3 Outdoes Itself On Performance

Cessna announced updated performance figures for its new Citation CJ3, which substantially outperformed the originally published - already impressive - estimated specification numbers unveiled at the CJ3's launch in 2002. In a related post-show announcement, Cessna also announced that it has received final type certification from the FAA for the Citation CJ3.

Cessna unveiled plans to launch its fifth massive Citation Special Olympics Airlift - the largest peacetime airlift in the world. Cessna expects the 2006 Citation Special Olympics Airlift to include 400 Citations that will transport more than 2,500 Special Olympics athletes and coaches across the nation to the 2006 Special Olympics US National Games at Iowa State University, July 3-8, 2006.

Cessna announced its new line of "CES" customer support programs designed to make owning and maintaining Citation business jets even easier. Each of the new CES offerings was designed using input from cross-functional disciplines at Cessna, the FAA, and from a variety of Citation owners and operators. The new CES support programs are available exclusively for Cessna customers.

Cessna announced that its Citation Service Centers in Wichita, KS and Orlando, FL have more than doubled in size this year, as Cessna has invested more than $100 million to open more than 600,000 additional square feet of new hangar and office space dedicated to the support of the growing Citation fleet.

Cessna reported that it has begun the assembly of the first Citation Mustang fuselage on production tooling at its Pawnee facility in Wichita (KS).

Cessna also unveiled several feature upgrades and improvements across a number of its aircraft, including an enhanced vision system (EVS) for the Citation Excel and Citation XLS; the continued rollout of Cessna's Citation Performance Calculator (CPCalc) for Encore, Excel, CJ1 and CJ2 operators; and the addition of an AMSAFE Inflatable Restraint System to new single engine aircraft beginning in 2005.

Big Business For Bell

Bell announced that it has won the US Customs and Border Protection solicitation for twin turbine helicopters to help support critical homeland security missions, resulting in a contract award estimated at $164 million to provide Bell 430 helicopters. Bell also reported that, with this contract, the company has won two out of three US Federal Government helicopter competitions this year. The second was for the delivery of three Bell 407s to the US Drug Enforcement Agency.

Bell introduced its "Fly Smart" Member Program, to assist customers in the management of costs associated with the operation of their aircraft. The first offering includes a unique parts plan that provides fixed, monthly parts costs for customers' helicopters, resulting in the ability for customers to plan parts expenditures months - even years - in advance.

Bell reported that the Bell 407 worldwide fleet of 605 has logged in an excess of 1,170,00 flight hours, and that the two aircraft leading the fleet have surpassed the 10,000-hour mark.

Bell reported that its new tail fan demonstrator helicopter has successfully completed a round of critical high altitude flight-testing in Leadville (CO). The demonstrator is being used to explore the flight characteristics of a protected, low-noise anti-torque device intended for use on Bell's upcoming Modular Affordable Product Line (MAPL) of light helicopters.

FMI: www.textron.com