Cessna president Jack Pelton has been presented with the 2008 Freedom of Flight award, the EAA’s highest honor.
EAA president Tom Poberezny said the award recognized Pelton’s involvement in aviation and his vision for LSA through the development of the Cessna SkyCatcher. His drive and support for organizations such as Young Eagles was also applauded by one of Cessna’s most famous customers, Harrison Ford, who flew to Oshkosh in his own Citation.
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Pelton has turned around Cessna’s fortunes to record a record $16billion of backlog through the first half of this year. As well as a range of single-engine pistons, the company has a whole family of business jets with the ultimate being the CitationX – the world’s fastest civil aircraft.
The announced launch of the Gulfstream 650 long-range business jet is set to take that title away from the Wichita-based company, but Pelton is having none of it.
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The G650 is planned to fly at 528ktas, three knots faster than the CitationX but Pelton says: “Let’s put this in the proper context. Gulfstream are making the claim their new G650 will be certified three knots faster than CitationX but it is yet to fly and yet to certify. Today we are still the fastest and, if Gulfstream achieves what they say they are going to do, then we will one-up them.
“We are not going to rest on this one!”
Source: Flight International
