In a Q&A session, Textron Aviation’s senior vice-president of parts and programmes Kriya Shortt, and Brian Rohloff, senior vice-president of customer support, take a closer look at the company’s three pioneering brands.

Textron Aviation was formed in 2014, bringing together the three iconic brands of Beechcraft, Cessna and Hawker with over 200 years of aviation experience. These brands pioneered many of general aviation’s most notable advances over the past century. Textron Aviation has since extended its position as a world leader with a series of significant aircraft and service introductions. Today, its products account for more than half of all general aviation flying worldwide. Cessna, Beechcraft and Hawker remain distinct brands to preserve their rich histories and respective strengths in the marketplace.

Q) What are the types of demands placed on your company by today’s customers?

Rohloff: We have a great team at Textron Aviation that delivers technically adept, skilled results to our customers. We focus on relationships, understanding that our customers are people and have needs and demanding schedules. Approaching customers solely from a technical standpoint doesn’t always resonate. They need to feel heard and valued. I want that to be their experience when interacting with Textron Aviation.

Our customers have access to our class-leading factory-direct service and support network, staffed by nearly 3,000 employees across the globe. Jet and turboprop owners have dedicated teams of expert service representatives offering maintenance, inspections, parts, repairs, avionic upgrades, equipment installations, refurbishments and other specialised services.

Q) What are the current design challenges that face the MRO sector?

Shortt: Textron Aviation supports all models produced under its Type Certificate, past and present. For our turbine customers this means over 50 years and more than nine decades for our piston customers, so parts obsolescence does challenge us from time to time. When presented with this challenge, we draw on our engineering talent and dedicated supply chain to support these legacy models. Our goal in supporting these issues and finding solutions is to provide our customers with a seamless experience.

Additionally, we acquired Able Aerospace, a supplier of component, repair and overhaul services in 2016. By leveraging Able’s special processing abilities along with its rich history of developing standard repair and overhaul capabilities we are able to look at solutions and work in conjunction with our supply chain to ensure that customers have OEM-quality, approved and supported solutions.

Q) What are the current aircraft programmes you’re working on and what are the challenges of coordinating with the supply chain?

Rohloff: We’ve continued to focus on developing and bringing to market new aftermarket products for our customers. Textron Aviation continues to see good demand for connectivity solutions, and we’re working with GoGo for L3 and L5 internet programmes that cover models across our fleet.

Additional avionics upgrade programmes are in development with our suppliers to provide our customers with options to modernise their flight deck and meet next-gen mandates. Examples of this include the Garmin G5000 upgrade for Cessna Citation Excel and XLS jets as well as the Collins Pro Line Fusion upgrade for Cessna Citation CJ1+, CJ2+, and CJ3 aircraft, available in 2021.

In August, we announced special type certification (STC) approval of Innovation Solutions & Support (IS&S) ThrustSense Autothrottle and the Beechcraft King Air 300 series equipped with Pro Line Fusion avionics and new production Beechcraft King Air 360 turboprops. This is in addition to the STC that was received in 2019 for Pro Line 21-equipped Beechcraft King Air 200 series. We’re continuously focused on preparing our European customers for the ADS-B mandate. The company has had great support from its suppliers throughout 2020, especially with regards to aftermarket development.

Q) How do you know when it’s time to replace – and not repair?

Rohloff: As always, listening to our customers is vital in helping them decide when to repair or replace. We know as the fleet ages and cost-of-ownership increases, customers want to know that repairs are being completed with the utmost of OEM quality.

The decision to replace with new, exchange, or whether to repair a component can be a complex decision, with availability and cost being the most obvious factors for our customers. As an OEM, MRO provider, and parts support organisation, it’s our responsibility to be flexible and support each customer’s unique needs. Therefore, we have structured our support with the ability to pivot with each of these situations.

Q) Do you find the current European aerospace industry an easy industry in which to do business and keep pace with changing trends, pricing and legislations?

Rohloff: While there are always challenges, business aviation remains strong in the region. With the Cessna, Beechcraft and Hawker brands having an installed base of more than 1,800 business jet and turboprop aircraft in the region, we are optimistic about the future and remain focused on growing with and effectively supporting the aircraft we produce. We have also seen industry growth in areas such as air ambulance, flight training, and military/law enforcement support.

Our European support strategy is to provide centrally-located support at our company-owned service centres in the region. In addition, we recently expanded our European Union Parts and Distribution Centre (EUDC) in Düsseldorf, doubling its size and significantly increasing regional inventory levels and part counts. We also provide enhanced access to parts and service through regional mobile service units (MSUs), line stations and AOG and technical support coordinated through our 1CALL support team, which can be reached 24/7.

Q) What differentiates your company from the competition - why should a customer use you over your nearest rival?

Rohloff: Textron Aviation relentlessly drives the future of the aircraft industry – designing, building and certifying tomorrow's aircraft with unparalleled speed-to-market. In the last six years, Textron Aviation has announced, certified and delivered nine innovative aircraft, truly pioneering the future of flight. For instance, the flagship Cessna Citation Longitude business jet, which received Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) type certification in 2020, is revolutionary in the super-midsize segment and the newest Beechcraft flagship the King Air 360 twin-utility turboprop, which just received FAA certification in October last year, demonstrates the company’s commitment to ongoing product development, bringing the latest innovations to the legendary aircraft and providing added value for customers.

We have a global installed fleet of over 19,500 turbine aircraft and have delivered more than 200,000 piston aircraft. With more than 7,000 aircraft delivered to-date, and 94% still in operation, Cessna Citation jets represent the largest fleet of business jets in the world. Traditionally, our largest markets have been the United States, Europe and the Middle East, but we have also scored growth in Asia Pacific and South America in recent years.

Ownership of a Cessna, Beechcraft or Hawker aircraft is backed up by the reassurance of our global customer support, the largest general aviation service network in the world, made up of 18 company-owned service centres and approximately 70 mobile service units. Through the dedicated support of nearly 3,000 service employees, our expansive service network gives our customers direct access to a team of expert service representatives offering superior customer and product support.

Q) What do you feel are the most important assets of a company?

Rohloff: For over 90 years, Textron Aviation has empowered its collective talent across the Beechcraft, Cessna and Hawker brands to design and deliver the best aviation experience for our customers. Textron Aviation has the most versatile and comprehensive aviation product portfolio in the world and a workforce that has produced more than half of all general aviation aircraft worldwide. Customers in more than 170 countries rely on our legendary performance, reliability and versatility, along with our trusted global customer service network, for affordable, productive and flexible flight.

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