It may not be the most exciting looking aircraft on the park, but the Cessna Caravan is the bird you want to see in some remote place - and it's selling better than at any time in its 14 years in service.
This year - around November - Cessna (Stand A1021) will sell the 1,000th copy of the utility aircraft in what is expected to be another record year for sales.
"We are having a record number of commercial order intakes," said Phil Michel, Cessna vice-president, marketing at the show yesterday. "We sold 120 in 1997 (a record) and we anticipate an even stronger year this year.
Chicks
To mark the 1000th order, Cessna is organising a world tour of the aircraft. One of the three aircraft making the tour is at show and will be heading for Australia after Asian Aerospace '98.
The Caravan is an aircraft with almost as many uses as it has owners. One aircraft, based in Chicago, is used at night to ferry newspapers and by day as a parachute jump platform while in Africa another ferries chicks. It has beconme even more popular since the US Federal Aviation Administration approved single-engine IFR operations last year.
Michel believes that the record order book may be partly attributable to the fact that large numbers of piston twin competitors are nearing the end of their service lives.
"I don't really see an end to the sales because of the demand for utility airplanes. Over the next five years I see continued growth in the market place," he says.
Mike Martin
It may not be the most exciting looking aircraft on the park, but the Cessna Caravan is the bird you want to see in some remote place - and it's selling better than at any time in its 14 years in service.
This year - around November - Cessna (Stand A1021) will sell the 1,000th copy of the utility aircraft in what is expected to be another record year for sales.
"We are having a record number of commercial order intakes," said Phil Michel, Cessna vice-president, marketing at the show yesterday. "We sold 120 in 1997 (a record) and we anticipate an even stronger year this year.
Chicks
To mark the 1000th order, Cessna is organising a world tour of the aircraft. One of the three aircraft making the tour is at show and will be heading for Australia after Asian Aerospace '98.
The Caravan is an aircraft with almost as many uses as it has owners. One aircraft, based in Chicago, is used at night to ferry newspapers and by day as a parachute jump platform while in Africa another ferries chicks. It has beconme even more popular since the US Federal Aviation Administration approved single-engine IFR operations last year.
Michel believes that the record order book may be partly attributable to the fact that large numbers of piston twin competitors are nearing the end of their service lives.
"I don't really see an end to the sales because of the demand for utility airplanes. Over the next five years I see continued growth in the market place," he says.
Source: Flight Daily News
