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Cessna has resumed production of the Model 350 Corvalis and 400 Corvalis TT models, albeit at Indepedence, Kansas, rather than their former home of Bend, Oregon.
Cessna closed the former Columbia Aircraft facility at Bend where the models were produced in April due to the global financial crisis hitting demand for the high performance composite Corvalis models, with production planned to resume at Cessna’s piston production facilities in Kansas. Under the new arrangement, the aircraft’s composite structure will be made in Mexico, with final assembly at Independence.
Work on the first Kansas manufactured is expected to take six months, with the production initially being accommodated in Cessna’s paint facility at Independence ahead of a more permanent move by the end of the year alongside Cessna’s Mustang and single engine production lines.
Sources indicate that 24 Corvalises were delivered during the first half of 2009, representing half the number for the first half of last year. Nevertheless, Cessna expects that demand will pick up across its single engine lines during the year ahead.
