A Workhorse Reshod

Textron Aviation—the parent company of Beechcraft, Hawker (formerly), Cessna, and Lycoming—is offering a gravel kit for its new Cessna SkyCourier twin turboprop.

The kit affords SkyCourier operators flexibility to operate their aircraft from the unimproved runways by which the world’s more remote locales are characterized. First deliveries of the SkyCourier with the installed gravel kit option will commence in February 2023.

The Cessna SkyCourier is a clean-sheet Textron design, type certified by the FAA in March 2022.

Textron senior vice president of sales and flight operations Lannie O’Bannion stated: “Cessna aircraft have been moving people and critically-needed goods in and out of remote areas for decades, and this new capability allows SkyCourier customers to operate in some of the world’s most demanding environments. The addition of this new gravel kit greatly enhances the already rugged reliability of the SkyCourier.”

The gravel kit facilitates the SkyCourier’s further use in global markets by a variety of government, law enforcement, military, air-ambulance, freight-hauling, and non-profit/humanitarian customers.

The Cessna SkyCourier is a high-wing, fixed-undercarriage, non-pressurized, utility aircraft powered by a pair of 1,100-shaft-horsepower Pratt & Whitney PT6A-65SC turboprop engines turning McCauley C779 110-inch, aluminum, four-blade, full-feathering, reversible-pitch propellers. So motivated, the aircraft manages a Vne of 210-knots, a Vso stall speed of 74-knots, a maximum range of 940-nautical-miles, an impressive 19,000-pound Maximum Gross Takeoff Weight (MGTOW)—4,826-pounds of which is given over to jet fuel—and a service-ceiling of FL250.

The SkyCourier’s cockpit features G1000 NXi avionics. The machine’s ample, flat-floored cabin has a height of 5’11”, a width of 6'5', a length of 23’4”, and cargo capacity of 6,000-pounds/884-cubic-feet.

Available in freighter and 19-passenger commuter configurations, the SkyCourier offers a large door, expansive cabin windows, and discrete crew and passenger entries. Both iterations offer single-point pressure refueling. The freighter version accommodates up to three LD3 shipping containers.

To date, launch customer FedEx Express has ordered no fewer than fifty SkyCouriers to support its demanding, global logistical needs.

FMI: www.cessna.txtav.com/en/turboprop/skycourier-freighter#overview