Redefining Island Hopping
Textron Aviation announced the first passenger configured specimen of Cessna’s SkyCourier twin turboprop had been delivered to Western Aircraft, Inc.—doing business in Hawaii as L?na’i Air. The company offers luxury air service connecting Oahu to the island of L?na’i.
Textron Aviation senior vice-president of global sales and flight operations Lannie O’Bannion stated: “The Cessna SkyCourier is well on its way to becoming a legendary aircraft for our company. It’s highly versatile, with cabin flexibility, payload capability, performance, and low operating costs, and has already proven to be popular around the world.”
Mr. O’Bannion added: “We’re thankful for our talented team who brought the Cessna SkyCourier to life, and for customers like Lana’i Air, who see the value in this incredible aircraft.”
A clean-sheet Textron design type certified by the Federal Aviation Administration in March 2022, Cessna’s SkyCourier is a high-wing, fixed-undercarriage, non-pressurized, utility aircraft. Designed to deliver robustness and reliability under the most demanding operating conditions, the SkyCourier is powered by a pair of 1,100-shaft-horsepower Pratt & Whitney PT6A-65SC turboprop engines turning 110-inch McCauley C779 aluminum, four-blade, full-feathering, reversible-pitch propellers.
So motivated, the SkyCourier manages a Vne of 210-knots, a maximum range of 940-nautical-miles, and a substantial 19,000-pound Maximum Gross Takeoff Weight (MGTOW)—4,826-pounds of which is given over to jet fuel. At the low end of its flight envelope, the SkyCourier impresses with a usefully docile, 74-knot Vso stall speed.
To the subject of altitude, Cessna’s SkyCourier is capable of ascending to an advertised service-ceiling of FL250. Capability notwithstanding, operating an unpressurized aircraft at 25,000-feet is a no-frills means by which to run afoul of the human factors, aeronautical decision making, and judgment criteria set forth in FAR 61.155.
The SkyCourier’s ample flat-floored cabin has a height of 5’11”, a width of 6’5”, a length of 23’4”, and cargo weight and volume capacities of 6,000-pounds and 884-cubic-feet respectively.
At the aircraft’s business end, SkyCourier pilots will enjoy availing themselves of the machine’s G1000 NXi avionics. Offered as standard, factory equipment, the G1000 NXi suite features high-resolution glass displays, lightning-fast processing, proprietary SurfaceWatch runway identification and alerting technology, Connext wireless cockpit connectivity, HSI mapping on primary flight displays, animated NEXRAD datalink weather, autopilot-coupled visual approaches to pilot-selectable minimums, and a great-many additional eminently-useful, workload-reducing capabilities.
Available in freighter and 19-passenger commuter configurations, the SkyCourier offers a large main door, expansive cabin windows, and discrete crew and passenger entries. Both iterations offer single-point pressure refueling. The SkyCourier’s freighter version accommodates up to three LD3 shipping containers.
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