Cessna Aircraft Company is an American aviation manufacturing company located in Wichita, Kansas that specializes in small aircraft and business jets. It operates as a subsidiary of Textron along with Bell Helicopter, Greenlee, E-Z-GO, Kautex, and Textron Systems. Textron is a publicly traded international conglomerate headquartered in Rhode Island. It was founded in 1923 and today it brings in $12.237 billion in revenue of as 2012, $242 million in net income, and reports $10.711 billion in assets. The company employs around 33,000 and the current CEO is Scott C. Donnelly. It is also listed in the New York Stock Exchange, S&P 500, and 225th on the latest Fortune 500 rankings.
Cessna is a considerable portion of Textron's business, with reported revenue of $3.111 billion. Last year, Cessna delivered 571 aircraft to its customers, of which 181 were Citation business jets. The company has two lines of business, which are aircraft sales and aftermarket product support. Citation business jets, Caravan single-engine turboprops, single-engine aircraft, and lift solutions are all in the scope of Cessna aircraft sales. Its aftermarket services include spare parts and maintenance, inspection, and repair.
Cessna traces its beginnings back to 1911, when Clyde Cessna, a farmer from Kansas, built and tested his own aircraft. Cessna Aircraft was formed in 1927 as a partnership between Clyde Cessna and Victor Roos but subsequently shut down in 1932 due to the Great Depression. A few years later, the company was reopened by Dwayne Wallace, who transformed Cessna into the reputable company it is today. During World War II, the US Army and the Royal Canadian Air Force placed the largest orders for the company's Cessna T-50s. After the war, Cessna continued commercial production and introduced the Cessna 172, which is the most produced aircraft in history. The Cessna Citation 1, the company's first business jet, was released in 1969 and is still produced to this day. Cessna currently produces the following models of aircraft: Cessna 162, 172, 182, 206, 208, 400, 510, 525, 560XL, 680, and 750.
Most recently, Cessna showcased its newest aircraft at the Latin America Business Aviation Conference and Exhibition in August of 2013, due to anticipated increases in demand for its airplanes in Latin America. Cessna outperforms its closest three competitors combined in terms of number of aircraft delivered in the Latin American market and is the preferred aircraft supplier throughout the region. It unveiled the Citation Sovereign, Cessna TTx, and the Grand Caravan EX. In addition, its Citation M2 aircraft made its maiden flight on August 23rd 2013, and it's expected to be highly successful in the US market.
