Ok. I admit that I too got caught up on the frenzy that only a new aeroplane (or a woman in boots) can stir up at the NBAA show in Atlanta last week. This time it's a mystery high-speed turboprop said to fill the gap between the piston Corvalis TT and the twin-engine VLJ Mustang.
Heck, I even aksed our graphics wizard, Tim Brown, drum up a picture of what the supposed new Cessna high-speed single-engine turboprop might look like for an article in next week's Flight International...
The hubbub started at the Cessna press conference where Aviation Week Show News reporter, and my friend, Paul Jackson (of Jane's All the World Aircraft fame), asked Cessna CEO Jack Pelton if he would confirm or deny reported sightings of what looked like a Cessna Mustang, but in a single-engine turboprop configuration (hence the genesis of our picture).
Pelton was coy, saying only that he had heard that there had been such sightings.
Later, AOPA reporter Tom Horne asked Pelton again, and he added quite a bit more colouring to the blurry picture. Here's the video.
AvWeb then reported that the mystery aircraft will in fact have a Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6 turboshaft engine!
A source VERY close to the action now tells me that the mystery aircraft does in fact exist, and has in fact been out flying - twice.
But, he adds, CHILL OUT!
"Things got a bit out of hand and there is nothing imminent on this," he says. "Cessna is flying a technology demonstrator (two flights so far) but it's not a precursor to anything. They are still in early stages of looking at what might fit this market niche..."
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