Textron Aviation lines up four aircraft for certification in 2027

Textron Aviation has four aircraft in line for certification in 2027: Gen3 variants of its three Citation light jets and the Beechcraft Denali, a clean-sheet single-engine turboprop that has been long delayed. The company's new chief executive, Brian Rohloff, is seven weeks into the job and has put that certification work near the top of his list.

The Wichita manufacturer is showing four Cessna Citation models at NBAA-BACE in Las Vegas. The CJ3 Gen2 light jet is making its first appearance at the show. It is joined by the midsize Ascend, which entered service recently and debuted at the event last year, and by the upper-midsize Latitude and super-midsize Longitude.

Rohloff also faces the task of restoring the business to health after supply chain disruption and shortages of skilled labour that followed the pandemic. Further out, he must weigh larger questions, among them whether to re-enter the large-cabin segment Textron left when it dropped the proposed Citation Hemisphere in 2019 over problems with its Safran Silvercrest engine.

Demand is healthy, according to the company, across a product line it describes as the broadest in the industry. It covers piston aircraft, the Caravan and King Air families, the SkyCourier utility platform, the Denali, the Slovenian electric aircraft maker Pipistrel and the Citation range. Textron also sees passenger-market opportunities for the SkyCourier.

Industry figures put overall shipments at 333 in the first half of 2026, up from 300 a year earlier. Citation deliveries slipped by three against the 80 handed over between January and June 2025, a shortfall partly offset by stronger shipments elsewhere.