Textron Aviation is rumored to be one of the big newsmakers at NBAA in Las Vegas this week with the potential for two major airframe announcements. Of course, the company didn’t directly respond to AVweb’s inquiries about the new aircraft but it did encourage us to attend its news conference Monday at Henderson Executive Airport, where there was an empty space listed on the convention guide book for TBD (to be determined) aircraft. Speculation is that this is the long-predicted high-performance single turboprop that then-Cessna had reportedly been working on for years. Beechcraft also announced that sort of aircraft before it was acquired by Textron. Textron is also reported to be reviving a concept introduced in 2008but quickly killed in the economic turmoil that marked the ensuing half decade.
Former Cessna CEO Jack Pelton called the aircraft the Columbus. According to the Providence Business News(Textron is based in Providence), the aircraft will have a 4,000-nm range, which the Columbus also had, and be a big luxury competitor to lower-end offerings by Gulfstream, Bombardier and Dassault. The publication quotes former Cessna and Bombardier executive Rolland Vincent as saying the plane will differentiate itself from the others with its speed, which was originally pegged at 488 knots. AVweb’s at NBAA and will fill in the details in our show coverage, which starts Tuesday.
