Cessna Continues Consideration of Large Cabin Business Jet Concept

Atlanta. – One year after revealing its new large cabin concept (LCC) aircraft, Cessna Aircraft Company, a Textron Inc. (NYSE: TXT) company, continues to perform exploratory design work with the goal of announcing in the first quarter of 2008 a decision on whether to proceed.

“After unveiling the concept at last year’s National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) event, we took the mockup to the European Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition and the Paris Air Show to get opinions from a diverse sample of potential customers for a large-cabin, long-range business jet,” said Joe Hepburn, program manager for the LCC. “This seems like a logical extension of the Citation family, but we are being comprehensive in examining the business case for adding this aircraft to our product line.”

Cessna is progressing through a wind tunnel program to investigate range, speed and stability characteristics of the large cabin aircraft configuration. In the fourth quarter, the company will conduct tests in Bedford, England to determine high speed characteristics and in San Diego, CA to examine low speed handling qualities and high lift systems.

The LCC would be capable of intercontinental travel and would be the largest business jet ever developed by Cessna. A full scale mockup of the LCC will be exhibited at the company’s booth (#8550) from Sept. 25-27 at NBAA.