Despite an 80-year co-existence in Wichita, Kansas, there was surprisingly little overlap in 2014 when the newly formed Textron Aviation combined the Beechcraft and Cessna product lines. The separate portfolios even shared a curiously common gap. Amid a diverse array of pistons, turboprops and jets, neither company sold single-engined turboprop outside of the utility market.
Those days are now officially over.
Textron Aviation plans to formally unveil a cabin mock-up of the new $4.5 million single-engine turboprop at the Experimental Aircraft Association's annual fly-in. The still unbranded product will compete in a market segment now split between the $4.7 million Pilatus PC-12NG and the $3.8 million Daher-Socata TBM900.
The unveiling on the eve of EBACE means Textron Aviation is soon moving into the sales phase of the programme, almost 10 months after quietly announcing it last year at the EAA's fly-in at Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
Many details of Textron Aviation's latest product are still shrouded in mystery, including the name and even the brand – presumably, Cessna or Beechcraft – to be emblazoned on the new aircraft. Kriya Shortt, Textron Aviation's senior vice-president of sales and marketing, says that those details, along with a cabin mock-up with full interior, will be announced at this year's Oshkosh show, which is now under way and runs until 31 July.
"This is a space where we don't have a product today," Shortt says. But the features now available reveal the depth of Textron Aviation's commitment to compete in a market already claimed by two entrenched rivals. The single-engine turboprop will follow the example set by Cessna's Citation Latitude, which was introduced in a market with a focus on providing extra space in the cabin and new technology where it can save operators money in the long run.
So Textron Aviation's latest product boasts a flat floor under a 1.47m (58in)-high ceiling in a cabin stretching 1.6m in diameter, or 8cm wider than the nearest competitor. Though initially advertised at NBAA with 1,500nm range and a 280kt maximum cruise speed, Textron Aviation has improved those values to 1,600nm range with a 285kt top speed. The aircraft is not designed to overtake the 330kt sprint offered by the TBM, but it could edge past the 280kt PC-12NG in a race.
As previously announced, the metallic-skinned aircraft will feature a new, 1,240shp turboprop engine in development by GE Aviation at a new centre of excellence announced last year in the Czech Republic, where GE already assembles the H80-series as a modernised derivative of the Walter M601. The engine selection by Textron Aviation seemed a bold choice in a market segment dominated since the 1960s by the Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A engine family.
The full authority digital engine control (FADEC)-equipped engine will be driven by a composite, five-bladed, 105in-diameter McCauley propeller, leveraging a product developed by another Textron division.
The cockpit will be furnished with the Garmin G3000 integrated flightdeck, a recent favourite in Cessna's Citation jet family.
In other ways, however, the aircraft appears biased toward simplicity. Where the King Air 350i gets electrochromic windows, for example, Textron is choosing basic window shades.
The aircraft will also feature two entrances – a front left door measuring 24in by 59in (61x150cm) for the crew and passengers and a rear cargo door measuring 53in by 59in. A standard configuration offers a six-seat layout with four seats in a club format and two aft cabin seats, with a service station in the front of the cabin and a belted lavatory in the rear. If those two amenities are removed, the aircraft can be reconfigured in a high-density, nine-seat layout.
The marketing plan is to make this new aircraft appeal to as broad a clientele as possible, ranging from an executive transport to a small airline transport. The single-engine turboprop must find a unique niche in the Textron Aviation portfolio, somewhere between the utilitarian King Air and Caravan on one side and fast, single-engined pistons such as the Corvalis TTx on the other.
Overall shipments by Daher and Pilatus in the single-engine turboprop segment have grown by nearly 25% since 2011, although both products are still delivering well below peak levels in 2008 and 2009, according to the General Aviation Manufacturers Association.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
