CPI Aerostructures Inc. has a new contract with Cessna Aircraft Company to supply structural assemblies, mostly wing spars, for Cessna’s newly relaunched Cessna Citation X. Over its seven-year run, CPI Aero estimates, the contract will have a value of approximately $41 million. The initial delivery order is worth approximately $5 million, the manufacturer stated.
CPI Aero is an Edgewood, N.Y., contract manufacturer of structural aircraft parts for defense contractors and the U.S. Dept. of Defense. It provides engineering, technical, and program management services, and also subcontracts manufacturing work for commercial aircraft parts.
The company is a holding of Textron Inc. Textron’s other brands include Bell Helicopter, Jacobsen, Kautex, Lycoming, E-Z-GO, Greenlee, and Textron Systems.
Cessna is a general aviation OEM, and the Citation X is its flagship design. It’s a long-range business jet powered by two, high-bypass ratio Rolls-Royce turbofan engines. The new Citation X will be an updated version of the current model, introduced in 1996, and due to be introduced late in 2013 with updated engines and avionics.
The new Citation X (the prototype made its first flight last January) will have the same supercritical wing as the current Citation X, and CPI Aero will manufacture 11 different structural assemblies, including nine spar assemblies. Wing spars are the primary structural components that run the length of the wing: the longest spar assembly will be over 29 feet long.
CPI Aero will begin deliveries of its products in the first half of 2013.
“We are very proud that Cessna, the world’s leading manufacturer of General Aviation aircraft, has selected CPI Aero to provide critical assemblies for its new Citation X program,” Edward J. Fred, CPI Aero’s CEO and president stated.
“We have been a supplier to Textron Inc. through its Bell Helicopter subsidiary,” Fred continued, “however, this is our first contract from Cessna and we are excited to build upon our successes at Bell. Cessna becomes the third new commercial aerospace customer announced in the past eighteen months and justifies our strategy to target opportunities on long-lived civilian aircraft programs.”
