Textron Aviation is moving production of the Cessna Caravan from Wichita to Independence, Kansas, to make room for new products, including its new flagship jet and high-performance turboprop. The company announced the move on Friday. “This move will utilize capacity at our Independence, Kansas, facility, while making our Wichita work force available for new products such as the Citation Longitude and Cessna Denali,” Textron said in a statement. The company has already picked the former Beechcraft facility across the airport for Longitude and the Denali will be built in the space now occupied by the Caravan line.
The Independence facility is home to Cessna pistons and the Mustang light jet and sales of those lines have struggled in recent years. The Caravan remains popular and the end result should be that jobs will be maintained at both facilities. Textron hasn’t issued a timeline for the move but the Denali is supposed to fly by 2018.
