Origins Clyde Cessna, a farmer in
Rago, Kansas, built his own aircraft and flew it in June 1911. He was the first person to do so between the
Mississippi River and the
Rocky Mountains. Cessna started his wood-and-fabric aircraft ventures in
Enid, Oklahoma, testing many of his early planes on the salt flats. When bankers in Enid refused to lend him more money to build his planes, he moved to
Wichita. , circa 1930s Cessna Aircraft was formed when Clyde Cessna and
Victor Roos became partners in the Cessna-Roos Aircraft Company in 1927. Roos resigned just one month into the partnership, selling back his interest to Cessna. Shortly afterward, Roos's name was dropped from the company name. The
Cessna DC-6 earned certification on the same day as the
stock market crash of 1929, October 29, 1929. at
Blackpool (Squires Gate) Airport in 1950 The
Cessna C-37 was introduced in 1937 as Cessna's first seaplane when equipped with
Edo floats.
Postwar boom , circa 1954 Cessna returned to commercial production in 1946, after the revocation of wartime production restrictions (L-48), with the release of the
Model 120 and
Model 140. The approach was to introduce a new line of all-metal aircraft that used production tools, dies and jigs, rather than the hand-built
tube-and-fabric construction process used before the war. The
Model 140 was named by the US Flight Instructors Association as the "Outstanding Plane of the Year" in 1948. Cessna introduced the
Cessna 172 in 1956. It became the
most produced airplane in history. In 1959, Cessna acquired
Aircraft Radio Corporation (ARC), of Boonton, New Jersey, a leading manufacturer of aircraft radios. During these years, Cessna expanded the ARC product line, and rebranded ARC radios as "Cessna" radios, making them the "factory option" for
avionics in new Cessnas. However, during this time, ARC radios suffered a severe decline in quality and popularity. Cessna kept ARC as a subsidiary until 1983, selling it to avionics-maker
Sperry. In 1960, Cessna acquired
McCauley Industrial Corporation, of Ohio, a leading manufacturer of
propellers for light aircraft. McCauley became the world's leading producer of
general aviation aircraft propellers, largely through their installation on Cessna airplanes. In 1960, Cessna affiliated itself with
Reims Aviation of
Reims, France. In 1963, Cessna produced its 50,000th airplane, a Cessna 172. In 1985, Cessna ceased to be an independent company. It was purchased by
General Dynamics. Production of the
Cessna Caravan began. General Dynamics in turn sold Cessna to
Textron in 1992. -designed
Cessna 350 Late in 2007, Cessna purchased the bankrupt
Columbia Aircraft company for US$26.4M and would continue production of the Columbia 350 and 400 as the
Cessna 350 and
Cessna 400 at the Columbia factory in
Bend, Oregon. However, production of both aircraft had ended by 2018.
Chinese production controversy On November 27, 2007, Cessna announced the then-new
Cessna 162 would be built in
China by
Shenyang Aircraft Corporation, which is a subsidiary of the China Aviation Industry Corporation I (AVIC I), a Chinese
government-owned consortium of aircraft manufacturers. Cessna reported that the decision was made to save money and because the company had no more plant capacity in the United States at the time. Cessna received much negative feedback for this decision, with complaints centering on the recent quality problems with Chinese production of other consumer products, China's human rights record, exporting of jobs and China's less than friendly political relationship with the United States. The customer backlash surprised Cessna and resulted in a company public relations campaign. In early 2009, the company attracted further criticism for continuing plans to build the 162 in China while laying off large numbers of workers in the United States. In the end, the Cessna 162 was not a commercial success and only a small number were delivered before production was cancelled.
2008–2010 economic crisis The company's business suffered notably during the
late-2000s recession, laying off more than half its workforce between January 2009 and September 2010. On November 4, 2008, Cessna's parent company,
Textron, indicated that
Citation production would be reduced from the original 2009 target of 535 "due to continued softening in the global economic environment" and that this would result in an undetermined number of lay-offs at Cessna. On November 8, 2008, at the
Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) Expo, CEO
Jack Pelton indicated that sales of Cessna aircraft to individual buyers had fallen, but piston and turboprop sales to businesses had not. "While the economic slowdown has created a difficult business environment, we are encouraged by brisk activity from new and existing propeller fleet operators placing almost 200 orders for 2009 production aircraft," Pelton stated. Beginning in January 2009, a total of 665 jobs were cut at Cessna's Wichita and
Bend, Oregon, plants. The Cessna factory at
Independence, Kansas, which builds the Cessna piston-engined aircraft and the
Cessna Mustang, did not see any layoffs, but one third of the workforce at the former
Columbia Aircraft facility in Bend was laid off. This included 165 of the 460 employees who built the
Cessna 350 and
400. The remaining 500 jobs were eliminated at the main Cessna Wichita plant. In January 2009, the company laid off an additional 2,000 employees, bringing the total to 4,600. The job cuts included 120 at the Bend, Oregon, facility reducing the plant that built the Cessna 350 and 400 to fewer than half the number of workers that it had when Cessna bought it. Other cuts included 200 at the Independence, Kansas, plant that builds the single-engined Cessnas and the Mustang, reducing that facility to 1,300 workers. On April 29, 2009, the company suspended the
Citation Columbus program and closed the Bend, Oregon, facility. The Columbus program was finally cancelled in early July 2009. The company reported, "Upon additional analysis of the business jet market related to this product offering, we decided to formally cancel further development of the Citation Columbus". With the 350 and 400 production moving to Kansas, the company indicated that it would lay off 1,600 more workers, including the remaining 150 employees at the Bend plant and up to 700 workers from the Columbus program. In early June 2009, Cessna laid off an additional 700 salaried employees, bringing the total number of lay-offs to 7,600, which was more than half the company's workers at the time. The company closed its three
Columbus, Georgia, manufacturing facilities between June 2010 and December 2011. The closures included the new facility that was opened in August 2008 at a cost of US$25M, plus the
McCauley Propeller Systems plant. These closures resulted in total job losses of 600 in Georgia. Some of the work was relocated to Cessna's Independence, Kansas, or Mexican facilities. Cessna's parent company, Textron, posted a loss of US$8M in the first quarter of 2010, largely driven by continuing low sales at Cessna, which were down 44%. Half of Cessna's workforce remained laid-off and CEO Jack Pelton stated that he expected the recovery to be long and slow. In September 2010, a further 700 employees were laid off, bringing the total to 8,000 jobs lost. CEO Jack Pelton indicated this round of layoffs was due to a "stalled [and] lackluster economy" and noted that while the number of orders cancelled for jets had been decreasing, new orders had not met expectations. Pelton added, "our strategy is to defend and protect our current markets while investing in products and services to secure our future, but we can do this only if we succeed in restructuring our processes and reducing our costs."
2010s On May 2, 2011, CEO
Jack J. Pelton retired. The new CEO, Scott A. Ernest, started on May 31, 2011. Ernest joined Textron after 29 years at
General Electric, where he had most recently served as vice president and general manager, global supply chain for
GE Aviation. Ernest previously worked for Textron CEO Scott Donnelly when both worked at General Electric. In September 2011, the
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) proposed a
US$2.4 million fine against the company for its failure to follow quality assurance requirements while producing fiberglass components at its plant in
Chihuahua, Mexico. Excess humidity meant that the parts did not cure correctly and quality assurance did not detect the problems. The failure to follow procedures resulted in the delamination in flight of a section of one
Cessna 400's wing skin from the
spar while the aircraft was being flown by an FAA test pilot. The aircraft was landed safely. The FAA also discovered 82 other aircraft parts that had been incorrectly made and not detected by the company's quality assurance. The investigation resulted in an emergency
Airworthiness Directive that affected 13 Cessna 400s. Since March 2012, Cessna has been pursuing building business jets in China as part of a joint venture with
Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC). The company stated that it intends to eventually build all aircraft models in China, saying "The agreements together pave the way for a range of business jets, utility single-engine turboprops and single-engine piston aircraft to be manufactured and certified in China." In late April 2012, the company added 150 workers in Wichita as a result of anticipated increased demand for aircraft production. Overall, they have cut more than 6000 jobs in the Wichita plant since 2009. In March 2014, Cessna ceased operations as a company and instead became a brand of
Textron Aviation.
Company terminology Cessna marketing terminology includes: •
Para-Lift Flaps – Large
Fowler flaps Cessna introduced on the
170B in 1952, replacing the narrow chord plain flaps then in use. •
Land-O-Matic – In 1956, Cessna introduced sprung-steel
tricycle landing gear on the 172. The marketing department chose "Land-O-Matic" to imply that these aircraft were much easier to land and take off than the preceding
conventional landing gear equipped Cessna 170. They even went as far as to say pilots could do "drive-up take-offs and drive-in landings", implying that flying these aircraft was as easy as driving a car. In later years, some Cessna models had their steel sprung landing gear replaced with steel tube gear legs. The
206 retains the original spring steel landing gear today. •
Stabila-Tip – Cessna started commonly using wingtip
fuel tanks, carefully shaped for aerodynamic effect rather than being tubular-shaped. Tip tanks do have an advantage of reducing
free surface effect of fuel affecting the balance of the aircraft in rolling maneuvers. ==Aircraft==