WICHITA (AP): Textron Lycoming announced today the acquisition of two type-certificates from The New Piper Aircraft of Vero Beach Florida in its latest attempt to diversify its wholly owned subsidiary, Cessna Aircraft. Following lengthy negotiations the sale of the type certificates for the Piper PA-18 “Super Cub” and the Piper J-3 “Cub”. Cessna plans to put both aircraft into production early in late 2009 to compete in the growing utility and LSA (light sport aircraft) markets in the United States and abroad. The PA-18 line will be renamed the Cessna 156 “Super Bear” and the J-3 will be know as the Cessna 155 “Skybasher”.
“We’re delighted with this acquisition”, noted Jack Pelton, President of Cessna Aircraft, “We see an immediate demand for traditional type aircraft to augment the extensive Cessna line, which ranges from high performance composite singles to luxury jets. We’ll be working diligently to return these aircraft to production in short order. There is a pent up demand for an established classic LSA trainer and a rugged utility aircraft that can fly with those great big rubber tires. Our market studies show great promise for these two airplanes”.
The New Piper Aircraft Company of Vero Beach also heralded the sale: “This takes a lot of pressure of us. I mean, you cannot imagine all of the people who come up to us at trade shows and demand that we start making these relics again. Really—there simply wasn’t any profit margin in it for us. Hopefully this sale will get all of those irritants of our backs,” said James Bass, President of New Piper, “hopefully Cessna will be here to pick up the tooling next week and get this crap out of here. We’ve got little jets to build!”
