Source: Textron Aviation
Cessna celebrates milestone with more than 3,100 aircraft delivered
Source: Textron Aviation
Cessna celebrates milestone with more than 3,100 aircraft delivered
March 31, 2025
Textron Aviation today announced that the company is celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Cessna Caravan single-engine utility turboprop with customers throughout the year, recognizing its growth and popularity throughout the world during the past four decades.
Cessna Caravan celebrates 40 years of adventures as one of the most versatile aircraft in the industry (Photo Credit: Textron Aviation).
The Cessna Caravan is designed and manufactured by Textron Aviation Inc., a Textron Inc. (NYSE:TXT) company.
“Customers continue to select the Caravan because of its great versatility to support a wide range of operations,” said Lannie O’Bannion, senior vice president, Sales & Marketing, Textron Aviation. “The aircraft can go almost anywhere—on water, off-the-grid backcountry and rough terrain without runways. Whether their mission is business, humanitarian or a great adventure, our customers rely on the Caravan to deliver them all around the world.”
The Cessna Caravan platform, which also includes the Cessna Grand Caravan EX, has more than 3,100 aircraft delivered and is certified in 100 countries. The aircraft has accumulated over 25 million flight hours globally.
Textron Aviation remains dedicated to enhancing the Caravan's capabilities, ensuring it continues to meet the evolving needs of pilots, passengers and aviation enthusiasts across the globe.
The aircraft’s cockpit currently features Garmin’s G1000 NXi avionics with the latest technology and connectivity. A brighter, modernized flight deck with new backlit panels and other amenities is expected to enter into service in 2025.
Conceived as a rugged utility aircraft with low operating costs, the first Caravan delivery was celebrated in 1985. The aircraft is renowned for its ability to operate in remote areas with extreme weather changes, mountainous terrain and rough landing locations. Today, Caravans are seen being utilized by government agencies, law enforcement and militaries, air ambulance services, freight haulers, corporations and humanitarian organizations.
An Air Nation Group Company
Source: Radio Free Asia
The Z-9 routinely operates from Chinese warships
U.S. operator will convert Grand Caravan EX aircraft to hybrid-electric propulsion
By Greg Waldron
February 18, 2025
A Chinese navy Harbin Z-9 helicopter has conducted a dangerous intercept of a Philippine government Cessna 208B Caravan.
The 18 February incident saw the Z-9 approach as close as 3m (10ft) from the turboprop, which was carrying journalists above the Scarborough Shoal, a location in the South China Sea that is illegally claimed by China, according to Radio Free Asia.
According to a Philippine coast guard spokesman, the helicopter made two close approaches to the aircraft’s left side.
In video posted on social media, the Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) pilot is heard warning the Z-9 that it is too close, endangering the lives of the Caravan’s passengers and crew.
The standoff between the two aircraft lasted about 30min.
The incident came about a week after a People’s Liberation
Army Air Force Shenyang J-16 conducted a dangerous intercept of a Boeing P-8A operated
by the Royal Australian Air Force.
That incident also occurred in international airspace over the South China Sea. The 11 February intercept saw the J-16 release flares close to the P-8A, according to Australia’s Department of Defence (DoD).
Chinese aircraft have a long history of dangerous intercepts in international airspace.
Despite the recent Australian and Philippine incidents, China appears to have backed off from dangerous intercepts of US military aircraft after former US President Joe Biden raised the issue with Chinese ruler Xi Jinping during a November 2023 summit.
According to Cirium, an aviation analytics company, the BFAR operates a single 208B Caravan that it obtained in 2023. Curiously, the aircraft was assembled in the Chinese city of Shijiazhuang by a joint venture between Cessna and China Aviation Industry General Aircraft.
It served for six years with China’s Hai Au Aviation before the BFAR obtained it in May 2023.
The Z-9 is based on the Airbus Helicopters AS365 Dauphin. It routinely operates aboard Chinese warships, serving in the reconaissance, strike, and anti-submarine warfare roles.
Textron Aviation delivered four Cessna
Grand Caravan EX aircraft to Surf Air Mobility between November and December
2024.
U.S. operator will convert Grand Caravan EX aircraft to hybrid-electric propulsion
December 7, 2024
Textron Aviation has delivered four Cessna Grand Caravan EX aircraft to Surf Air Mobility, a regional air services group that is developing electrified powertrains to modify the single-engine utility turboprops. These deliveries mark the first four of 20 Grand Caravan EX aircraft that Surf Air Mobility ordered last year.
The Los Angeles-based regional operator signed a provisional sales agreement with Textron Aviation in 2021 that covered orders for up to 100 Caravans plus an option for another 50. Surf Air Mobility said it is financing two of the initial aircraft deliveries through operating leases with Japanese aircraft lessor ITC-AeroLeasing.
Surf Air Mobility is developing a hybrid-electric powertrain to replace the Pratt & Whitney PT6 turbine engines on the Grand Caravan, which would reduce fuel burn and operating costs. It expects to obtain an FAA supplemental type certificate for the Caravan retrofits in 2027. In the meantime, Surf Air Mobility will use the new Caravan “to renew its existing fleet, bolster its existing network, and launch new routes in regions across the country,” the company said in a statement.
“We’re excited to immediately deploy these first four Grand Caravans onto our network to further enhance the profitability of our airline operations,” said Surf Air Mobility CEO Deanna White. “With our fleet order with Textron Aviation, we’re continuing to deliver on our transformation plan as every new Caravan will increase our operational efficiency and provide an even better experience for our passengers.”
In November, Surf Air Mobility secured a $50 million term loan from investment management firm Comvest Partners to help fund a four-phase “transformation plan” that the company hopes will boost profitability. The first phase of that plan involved changes to the company’s capital structure and management teams.
“We have fundamentally restructured our balance sheet—addressing our near-term liquidity
constraints, lowering our cost of capital, minimizing potential dilution under our equity share
subscription facility, and repositioning Surf Air Mobility for profitable growth,” said Surf Air
Mobility chief financial officer Oliver Reeves. “We are now poised to optimize the structure of
our business and capitalize on the opportunities before us.”
For phase two of the transformation plan, slated for 2025 and 2026, the company aims to
optimize and “rightsize” its airline and on-demand operations with the help of its own SurfOS
operating system. According to a quarterly earnings report issued in November, on-demand
service revenue dropped by 13% in the past year. Phase three of the plan calls for route
expansion in 2026 through 2027. From then on, the company hopes to grow revenue by implementing
electrification technologies.
“As we enter the next phase of our transformation plan, we are focused on optimizing operations and capital allocation to meaningfully improve profitability in the near term,” White said. “As we look further ahead, phases three and four of our plan will allow us to become the technology-enabled platform best positioned to capture a significant share of the $75 billion global regional air mobility market.”
Surf Air Mobility is the parent company of charter operator Surf Air and two regional Part 135 airlines, Florida-based Southern Airways Express and Mokulele Airlines in Hawaii. The regional aviation group hopes to make its operations and the greater aviation industry more sustainable by introducing electrified aircraft powertrains and related technologies, such as the SurfOS software.
In addition to modified legacy aircraft such as the Caravan, Surf Air Mobility is looking to bring new clean-sheet designs into its fleet. For example, it intends to operate up to 90 Electra hybrid eSTOL (electric short takeoff and landing) aircraft, which Electra aims to certify under FAA Part 23 rules in 2028. Surf Air Mobility has also committed to adding Regent’s wing-in-ground-effect seaglider to its fleet for coastal services in Hawaii, Florida, the Bahamas, and the Caribbean.
Dovetail Electric Aviation plans to
convert the Cessna Caravan to operate with a hydrogen-electric propulsion
system.
Norway's Skydive Voss, Dovetail Electric
Aviation and Scandinavian Seaplanes will conduct flight tests
October 22, 2024
Skydiving flights operator Skydive Voss plans to introduce electric aircraft to its fleet. Under an agreement announced on October 22, the Norwegian company has committed to a collaboration with propulsion system developer Dovetail Electric Aviation to convert several Cessna Caravan 208 single turboprops.
The partners have also agreed to explore options for converting other smaller piston-powered aircraft to electric propulsion, including models such as the Cessna 182 and 206. The powertrain will use MagniX's electric motors and batteries developed by Mobius Energy.
Flight testing of the first converted Caravan 208 is expected to take place by 2026, and will also involve Scandinavian Seaplanes. The companies involved aim to conduct these evaluation flights in a new designated test area in Norway that is being prepared by the country’s civil aviation authority and airport operator Avinor.
The provisional sales agreement makes Skydive Voss the second prospective customer for the Caravan electric conversion. Scandinavian Seaplanes has already announced plans to introduce the aircraft to its amphibious fleet.
In July, Australia-based Dovetail unveiled the first example of its 600-kilowatt hydrogen-electric powertrain. This propulsion system is intended for converting larger turboprop aircraft including the Textron's King Air, the de Havilland Otter and the Pilatus PC-12.
Also in July, during the Farnborough Airshow, the company agreed to provide battery packs for an eVTOL aircraft being developed by Spanish start-up Crisalion Mobility.
Cessna Caravan serial number
50—displayed by Azul Conecta, a feeder for Azul Airlines—is one of at least 26 of the
utility turboprop singles that make Azul the country’s largest Caravan operator. ©
Richard Pedicini/AIN
Turboprop single is a workhorse in Latin
America
August 8, 2024
Two Cessna Caravans on display this week at LABACE 2024 illustrate Textron Aviation’s long relationship with Brazil and how varied the business aviation market is.
Caravan serial number 50—displayed by Azul Conecta, a feeder for Azul Airlines—is one of at least 26 of the utility turboprop singles that make Azul the country’s largest Caravan operator. With 35,000 flight hours and a new digital cockpit, this airplane is in an executive configuration with only six seats.
Meanwhile, at the stand of TAM Aviação Executiva, Textron Aviation’s Brazilian distributor, a modern Grand Caravan EX is being shown in an executive configuration, but with a far greater level of luxury.
Marcelo Moreira, who leads Textron Aviation’s sales for Latin America and the U.S. West Coast, said many airlines around the world fly Caravans besides Azul, including Suzy Air in Indonesia, CTA in Brazil, Sansa, Costa Rica Green Airways, and Maya Island Air in Belize. But, he noted, “Azul is exploring the [Caravan’s] capacity very well, its ability to operate on unimproved runways and to reach smaller cities.”
Moreira gave other examples of the Caravan’s versatility and ability to perform special missions. A number of customers use amphibious Caravans in the Amazon “for many kinds of missions, such as sports fishing and ecotourism.” He said there are several large operators in Africa, where the Caravan is popular for cargo.
“It’s easy to operate, to maintain, and to fly,” Moreira said, “and also the choice of a lot of humanitarian organizations, such as Mission Aviation Fellowship.”
Moreira’s Latin American sales region includes Mexico, the Caribbean, and all of South America. Besides the versatile Caravan, his sales domain includes King Air turboprop twins and Citation twinjets.
Textron’s relationship with Brazil goes back many years, “and with time comes experience,” he said. The 43-year partnership with TAM AE goes back to when it was TAM, starting with founder Rolim Adolfo Amaro. Any visitor can see Rolim’s bust outside TAM AE’s flagship FBO at Congonhas, but Moreira can point out where his office was in the building known as Hangar 1.
According to Moreira, Textron Aviation maintains a full-time presence in São Paulo “inside TAM, but a separate office.” He said the turboprops and Citations “have done well in Brazil for more than 50 years.”
Looking to the future, he foresees a strong market for the company’s Beechcraft Denali, a pressurized turboprop single expected to be certified next year. It will complement the King Air, he said.
Moreira made another prediction for the future: Textron Aviation will continue for many years at LABACE.
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