At the Singapore Airshow 2024, Textron Aviation displayed four of its popular aircraft variants at display. To understand more about these aircraft and discuss on various aspects, Aviation World Team met two senior management of Textron Aviation, Jimmy Beeson, Director, Technical Marketing & Tony Jones, Vice-President Sales – APAC. They shared their insight with Vishal Kashyap, Managing Editor of the publication.Excerpts…

Q: We would like to know more about the current market status of Textron Aviation and also if you would like to focus upon any particular aircraft that is being quite famous in the APAC region?

Jimmy Beeson: From a company standpoint, I’ll say we were always among the leaders in the market in terms of innovation and producing products to meet the needs of various customers throughout the world. And I think that’s a great lead into the second part of your question of what products appeal to this market. I think four of them we have on static at SAS 2024 to show, but certainly it doesn’t stop there.

King Air Family
Look at the King Air platform, which we’re now celebrating 60 years of the King Air and how durable and reliable that platform is. But also, you know, I think it’s a great opportunity to be able to see that how configurable it is for a multitude of missions. So, when I look at configuring not only from an interior standpoint to meet the customer specifications and needs in terms of how many customers I can take, what sort of baggage and payload capacity I need to have on the airplane, but also a platform that is versatile in how you operate it in terms of being able to operate on and off runway. So, that makes it very popular in areas of the world. Where, either you’re trying to operate in and out of short runways, high altitude runways, or potentially dirt, grass, and gravel runways as well. So, that makes it appealing to customers all over the world.

Then you take the 360, for instance, and its high payload capability. It’s got a very high full fuel payload of over 1,500 pounds, meaning I can fill the tanks and still put either 1,500 pounds of payload or roughly seven or eight passengers onboard and still maintain that great range that the King Air 360 can do.

And then I look at the King Air 260,that still maintains the great durability and reliability, but also has the ability to either take large amounts of payload, or passengers, or loiter and stay in the air for a great amount of time. Those are all great characteristics of the King Air platform that’s made it so successful over the last 60 years.

The 360 and 260 platforms were also bringing about change to the King Air. The product line, which I’m sure you’re probably very familiar with at this point, the auto throttles, the digital pressurization, electric ground cooling, and the beautiful new interior. So, you’re starting to see a lot of that step change that you see on even some of the citations with the new interior making its way into the King Air platforms as well.

CJ4 GEN2

Citation Jet Series
The two CJ series have done very well in the market. The M2 is the smaller of the two. It’s our light entry jet. It’s got great performance and great operating economics, so it’s very efficient to operate both from a fuel burn standpoint and cost of operation standpoint. What I feel makes it attractive in markets such as this is its performance capability.

So, it has great range, great payload range, meaning it can maintain a large percentage of its range when you’re adding payload, albeit passengers or payload, to the platform. But it’s got great short field performance. So, both on standard days and high and odd performance, so high elevation, warm temperatures, it maintains great short field performance, which makes it available and capable of performing in and out of a lot of airports that some other jets just simply can’t.

CJ-4, much of the same, great operating economics, even better payload to range capability. You’re talking about an airplane that with four passengers on board can go over 1,900 nautical miles. Even with eight passengers on board, it can go almost 17. So, you don’t have that steep drop off in operating range when adding payload. And then you maintain a lot of those light jet capabilities, the great field performance, the great operating economics. Those are all things that you don’t lose by stepping up into the larger CJ. You just maintain all that great operational characteristics.

Citation Latitude
Lastly, the Latitude, which is an aircraft we have done a great job of positioning as both a commercial option but also a great charter or corporate flight department option. It’s very comfortable. Its cabin amenities are well-appointed, but it maintains great operating economics, short field performance.

It’s got the latest in Garmin G5000 technology, which makes it very pilot-friendly and very intuitive and easy to operate. It allows our pilots to just aviate and operate the airplane rather than worry about knobs and switches. And control.

So, really building on a legacy of the Citation brand and the Citation family, culminating in the newer aircraft such as Latitude and Longitude. Longitude being our flagship aircraft, it’s got an almost 3,500 nautical mile range and great payload and great cabin technology, great cockpit technology. It also has the G5000 suite in it with an optional HUD EVS now, enhanced vision system. It’s got a heads-up display integrated.

KING AIR

Q: Your focus is on enhancement of technology and onboard facility for all the category of business Jets. Is this one of the key areas that you have improvised?

Jimmy Beeson: Well, I guess more so, I think the message now is rather than a sole focus on improvements to legacy or clean sheet designs, we found a proper mix where we continue to focus on clean sheet designs and you see it with the Longitude coming to market. You see, with the continued development of the Beechcraft Denali, we are also refocusing on the legacy products. So, the Gen 2 products, the 260, 360, those are all iterations of legacy product just in taking those great platforms, those proven platforms, and making them better for today’s customer.

As I am heavily involved with our customer advisory board, so, all of those iterations of our aircraft, all of those changes that are made come from our customers. They tell us what they would like in their aircraft and we try to do that.

So, customer’s feedback is of highly importance at Textron family?

Jimmy Beeson: What I think when I say we’ve refocused and found that happy medium,that is completely customer driven. Quite frankly, you look at any of our aircraft, be it Gen 2s, the 360,or others, none of that is by chance. That is all due to the direct feedback from our customer base on what they want to see on the next iteration of whatever Textron Aviation product is coming in. So, when you look at clean sheet designs or at the Gen 2 changes or generation changes, we’ve refocused on making a customer part of that decision. Instead of just guessing where the market’s going to go, we’re letting our customers lead us to where we need to be. And I think that has paid extreme dividends for us.

Q: Any modifications you have done in particular on cabin height?
Jimmy Beeson: So, I think what you’re talking about is a great example of the latitude. The latitude has a flat floor stand up cabin. Quite frankly, because we can mean that customer advisory board and we said, what do you want to see from Textron Aviation next? And they talked about how much they love the Sovereign platform, the Sovereign Plus platform. They said, we love the performance of the Sovereign, the speed, the range, the short field performance, the operating economics. Can you give us all that with a bigger cabin?

So, that’s why you see the latitude. The latitude is a 680 platform. But Sovereign Plus was 680A platform. The wing is the same wing we put on the Sovereign. The engines are the same iteration of engines we put on the Sovereign. The tail section, there’s a lot of similarity there. We just built upon that similarity and that great product line, but put a bigger cabin on it to make it more comfortable and more luxurious.

What more we can expect on the modifications and something, something surprising?
Jimmy Beeson: I can’t really divulge what the next product is but what I can promise you is that we’re going to continue to evolve and innovate. And I think you should just keep your eyes peeled for what we come out with next because we’re not going to stop. We have to keep moving.

Our customers are continuing to evolve. We’re getting new customers. And if we want to keep doing that, we need to continue to evolve and innovate ourselves. So I think at a high level, that’s what you’re going to see from us in the future.

Q: Anything last concluding remarks from you?
Jimmy Beeson : Yeah, I just think it’s, you know, Textron Aviation has such a rich history, you know, in India. And I think that with the current growth, we’re seeing a lot of customers who have been long-time customers continuing to upgrade their airplanes.

But I’m excited also for the new customers that have been working with Charter and now coming into the market and working on their own issue in their own right. It looks very bright for us. Thank you.

Q: If we talk about Cessna Citation Ascend, what are the modifications?
Tony Jones: All of the modifications are customer-driven modifications. They’re actually one and the same, however you want to look at it. So, the big modification on the Ascend is as you know it’s the next line of XLS products. So, it’s a 560XL platform, which is great for our operators because they can transition from the XLS, the Plus, the Gen 2 straight into the Ascend. But what the Ascend does is much like I was talking about the Latitude. It takes that platform and gives the market what today’s customer wants.

So, that’s the biggest. What you’re going to see as an operator is we are moving into the Garmin platform. So, this would be a G5000 cockpit. You’ll notice that we’ve already brought the new interior in with the XLS Gen 2, but we’ve made some additional refinements to the Ascend. The Ascend cabin to make it even more comfortable.

So, what will happen now is it will be a flat floor, much like you see on Latitude. It will be a flat floor for seated comfort. You know the idea being there is that you spend 98% of your time in a seated position in the aircraft. What can we do to make that 98% of your time more comfortable? And the solution there is the flat floor. The windows are about 15% larger than they were on previous model 560XLs. So, a bit better viewing, more natural lighting. Makes it feel a little bit more inviting and open. The engines are a new variation of the Pratt & Whitney 545. We are moving to the 545D, which will be increased thrust to offset a little bit of the max takeoff weight increase. So, you’ll get a little bit of a range increase as well as an improvement to specific fuel consumption. So, it will be a little bit more efficient to operate as well. So, help maintain those actions operating at the looks of the 560 platform.

M2 GEN 2 INTERIOR

Q: How is the customer response after Citation Ascend was officially unveiled at EBACE last year and then at the mock-up at NBAA?
Tony Jones Oh! it’s been very positive. It’s going to be very successful. We’re excited to bring it to market, get it certified and start delivering. It’s been an excellent response, both from pilots and passengers. Passengers, because of all that we’re bringing from a, not just cabin aesthetics, but cabin technology with wireless charging, USB-C, a brand new wireless cabin management system on the aircraft, but also the pilots.

They get the G5000 suite with Garmin auto throttles and all the new Garmin software technology that’s coming about. The unattended APU, I’ve heard lots of pilots talk about that. Yes, the unattended APU is another feature that might go into this new engine.

Through some bleed leak detection, we’re able to get the engine to work. We’re able to make the APU unattended, which will be a great advantage and opportunity for our owner-operators.

Q: So, how soon we can see this particular aircraft into the Indian market? How you see to project it in this region?
Tony Jones: Yes. So, with the Indian market, it’s been an important market for Textron for a long time, and we’ve got a lot of very loyal customers in India, but the 560 XL, XLS has been a very popular airplane. So, this airplane is not unfamiliar to a lot of our Indian customers, and we’re sort of renowned for the fact that it fits the mission in India quite well, in terms of its domestic travel, and the ability to go internationally, and it sort of fits that niche that a lot of our Indian customers really like.

Q: What steps are being taken to address the timeline for delivery schedule?
Tony Jones: We’ve got an incredibly diverse range, portfolio of products. So, we have everything from our piston training airplanes, to our Caravan, King Air, and then through to our Citation range of jets. And we fit different missions with each one of those products. And each one of those products has a different delivery cycle. So, we’re working with customers that can get an airplane within, say, 12 to 18 months, out to, say, maybe two to just over two years. So, we’ve got a range of airplanes, and we’re just working with customers. The one thing that our customers are working with us on, they’re saying, no longer we just sort of just wake up in the morning, decide to buy an airplane. It’s about forward planning, the replacement of your existing airplane. So, looking at where the airplane is in its current state. And how it’s suiting their needs, and what their future needs are.

So, we’re sort of really consulting with our customers about what their future needs are. And what the timing is for that. And then how we can sort of help them achieve that goal by planning ahead.
A lot of our customers have used this opportunity to personalize their aircraft. Whereas, you know, when they used to wake up one day and decide to buy a plane, right, they would take the aircraft that was available. But now, with the backlog, they’re able to put in their own entire aircraft. They can go to the interior, select their own paint. Everything that makes it personal to them. So, I think a lot of the customers, wouldn’t you agree, are taking that opportunity with the way.

Q: Cessna Grand Caravan 208B and King Air is one of the most successful aircraft due to its dual usage for both passenger as well as Medevec? Your take on this.
Tony Jones: In fact, all of our platforms are very flexible. So, you know, our standard configuration is in a passenger transport configuration, which is in quite a corporate VIP. But it can be configured for air and medical. It can be changed at short notice from one configuration to another. Or we can use them in a whole range. We have a very strong special mission, special side of our business, which can configure.

We can configure the airplanes for maritime patrol, air ambulance, and a whole host of different needs for both government use and also private sector.

Q: What’s the projection for the future in terms of demand from the Indian market?
Yeah, certainly. I’ve spent a lot of time in India over the last couple of years, actually. And it’s a very buoyant market. And it has a very sort of positive outlook and bullish outlook to the future. We’re seeing a lot of demand from the Indian customers, both to kind of plan their replacement airplanes and plan their future requirements. As well as we’re seeing a lot of customers who have, in the last few years, tried private aviation through charter, have enjoyed it, and now want to take the step into their initial, their first-time ownership of an airplane. So, we’re working closely with those as well. So, we see a lot of demand.

With our board portfolio on the special mission and also the corporate, we did deliver two airplanes to the airport authority of India for those flight inspection airplanes. And we see also on the special mission side, great demand throughout India. So, India is a very… It’s a very active market for us at the moment.

Q: Can you focus on the training aircraft like Cessna 172? There is a lot of demand in the Indian market but the aircraft’s are not available?
Tony Jones: There’s been an explosion in demand for pilot training around the world and I think it’s probably been something that’s come through. A lot of the training organizations are now trying to address that demand. Aircraft’s, we have many aircraft on order for, you know, for delivery. And I think that it’s, it will continue to be very strong market for us.