EDGEWOOD, N.Y., 7 April 2015. Engineers and managers at Cessna Aircraft Company in Wichita, Kansas, needed wing spar assemblies for the airframe manufacturer’s flagship aircraft, the Citation X+. They found their solution at CPI Aerostructures Inc. (CPI Aero; NYSE MKT:CVU) in Edgewood, N.Y.
PI Aero won a purchase order from the Cessna, a subsidiary of Textron Aviation Inc., a Textron Inc. (NYSE:TXT) company. This purchase order is valued at approximately $3 million and is a follow-on to the long-term agreement (LTA) announced in October 2012. The total value of firm orders under this LTA is now approximately $12.2 million. CPI Aero commenced deliveries to Cessna in 2013. This new order extends production backlog through late 2016.
CPI Aero currently manufactures 11 different structural assemblies, including nine spar assemblies for the new Citation X+ aircraft.
A wing spar is the primary structural component of a wing and runs from the fuselage to the wingtip. The longest spar assembly for the Citation X+ aircraft is more than 29 feet long.
The new Citation X+, certified by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in June 2014, has seating for up to 12 passengers, a maximum altitude of 51,000 feet, a maximum speed of Mach 0.935, and an increased max range of 3,429 nautical miles.
The Citation X+ features the same supercritical wing as the legacy Citation X and is powered by the new AE3007C2 high by-pass ratio Rolls Royce engines that qualify the Citation X+ as the fastest operational civilian jet in the world.
CPI Aero is a U.S. manufacturer of structural assemblies for fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and airborne intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) pod systems in both the commercial aerospace and national security markets. Within the global aerostructure supply chain, CPI Aero is either a Tier 1 supplier to aircraft original equipment manufacturers or a Tier 2 subcontractor to major Tier 1 manufacturers. CPI also is a prime contractor to the U.S. Department of Defense, primarily the Air Force. In conjunction with its assembly operations, CPI Aero provides engineering, program management, supply chain management, and MRO services.
Among the key national security programs that CPI Aero supplies are the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye surveillance aircraft, the UH-60 BLACK HAWK helicopter, the F-16 Falcon fighter, the T-38C Talon trainer, the MH-53/CH-53 variant helicopters, the MH-60S mine countermeasure helicopter, the AH-1Z ZULU attack helicopter, the DB-110 reconnaissance pod, the ALMDS mine detecting pod, and the A-10 Thunderbolt attack jet. In the commercial aviation market CPI Aero manufactures products for the Gulfstream G650 ultra-large cabin business jet, the HondaJet advanced light jet, the Embraer Phenom 300 business jet, the new Cessna Citation X+, and the S-92 helicopter.
