Dave Higdon/INDEPENDENCE
Changes are being made at Cessna's two-year-old factory for single-engined aircraft production. The changes are designed to end a series of service bulletins and airworthiness directives (AD) issued by the US Federal Aviation Administration which are mostly connected to engineering or assembly failures in the factory.
The decision comes in response to new service bulletins that the Independence Kansas-based manufacturer has issued within the past four weeks. The latest bulletin, for example, requires inspection of the flight control cables and their routing in about 30 182S Skylanes and the entire fleet of 475 172R Skyhawks. Cessna notes that the source of these problems is a lack of experienced staff. "We just don't have the depth of experience we had when we stopped building piston aeroplanes in 1986," says the company. "When we resumed production, we set up the line, inspections and quality control much like it was when we built the singles before - in light of what's been happening, we're taking steps to address the shortcomings we have found," it adds.
Cessna's plans include additional training for the production workforce, which is dominated by local inhabitants who were employed by the company with no previous aircraft manufacturing experience; more and better assembly drawings to paint a clearer picture of what correct assemblies look like; and more inspections along the manufacturing and assembly process. Cessna has been issued with several ADs since the first was issued under emergency rules in May 1997. This required immediate inspections of the engine cowling and clearances between the tailpipe, the gascolator standpipe, and the openings for them in the cowl. The directive was prompted by the failure of the standpipe on a 172R during a ferry flight across the North Atlantic from Newfoundland. The ADs that followed covered problems such as leaking vendor-supplied mufflers on the 182S and some 172Rs and, most recently, cracking of the 182S exhaust system.
Cessna has delivered the first Citation Excel light business jet to Swift Air of Phoenix, Arizona, which already has seven Citations, including four Xs. The Excel has been leased back to Cessna for use as a demonstrator. The maker is due to deliver 15 Excels by year end, rising to 40 by late 1999.
Source: Flight International
