Cessna Picks Up Embraer’s Glove

Photo: Cessna Aircraft

The first victims are known even though the fight hasn’t even started। Citation XLS+ and Sovereign will find the peace they deserve.

I wouldn’t be surprised if head of Cessna Jack Pelton sees geographical puns in his dreams. As if Wichita suddenly moved to Sao Paolo, and the production facilities were surrounded by palm trees instead of the poplars and sunflowers he is accustomed to.

What are these surrealistic hallucinations? A case of fly agaric intoxication? I don’t think so – at least I don’t think the marketing specialists at Cessna and Embraer ever come near the things. But let’s get back to the story.

Before the “noughties” the footing of legendary Cessna Aircraft was indisputably firm, especially on the traditional American market. There was a competitor, of course – the no less known Hawker – but the market was divided between the two amicably and no heated battles were fought. The comfortable American climate made Cessna’s line very segmented, starting from very light and going up through light, and super-light, and to midsize jets. To suit any taste except for heavy and ULR jets.

The early noughties though saw confidence of prosperity give way to ironic bewilderment, then undisguised alarm. A new ambitious and talented player appears on the horizon – the Brazilian Embraer. With unbelievable swiftness it launches one, three, five models. It’s working on another two – the Legacy 500 and Legacy 450. And, bad news for Cessna, they’re aimed right at the segment the company has always dominated – midsize bizjets.

There’s reason for alarm: the Embraers are clean-sheet designs, unlike most Cessnas, which are a product of evolution. They will have fly-by-wire – this by itself is no big thing, but it will be featured on business jets much cheaper than the Falcon 7X, the only dedicated bizjet to date to feature fly-by-wire.

What could Cessna do? Only rise to the challenge. And head of parent company Textron Scott Donnelly, recognising that Embraer has entered Cessna’s territory, announced that changes – namely an upgrade of the light and midsize models and one or several clean-sheet designs. Business aviation veterans Citation XLS+ and Sovereign, with the wing that has often been copied for other models, will soon retire. The company will perform a midsize bizjet market analysis and probably announce the details of its new undertakings. And the Americans haven’t a moment to spare: The first Legacy 500/450 will fly to customers in 2012 and 2013.

It might be strange, but the reason for this post lies not in the announcement of Scott Donnelly, or to be more accurate, not in the words about investments, upgrading, and new models. Embraer, coming from a BRIC country – that is, a developing economy – has in just ten years managed to get to a point where it’s dictating the play to a market leader. I’ll note that although Hawker hasn’t retaliated against Embraer’s activity, this is probably not a highbrow disinclination to play the game with a novice, but a lack of capability to do so.

Modern art came to replace surrealism, paradoxical forms have been substituted with natural lines. Maybe Sao Paolo will outgrow the US airframing capital Wichita and start setting new production records…

… and no magic mushrooms involved.