Bid for Columbia marks departure for Cessna
Cessna’s intended acquisition of Bend, Ore.-based Columbia Aircraft Manufacturing, announced late in September, will complement Cessna’s latest piston-engi

Cessna’s intended acquisition of Bend, Ore.-based Columbia Aircraft Manufacturing, announced late in September, will complement Cessna’s latest piston-engine development, the next-generation piston (NGP). Not much is known about the NGP; Cessna showed the all-composite high-wing, which is in flight test, at the 2006 EAA AirVenture show in Oshkosh, Wis., but only by flying it over the airfield, thereby denying attendees a close-up look. At the time, the NGP seemed a logical extension of Cessna’s dedication to high wings on single-engine airplanes.

The idea that Cessna is now trying to buy Columbia, a manufacturer of high-performance, low- wing, composite-construction single-engine airplanes, seems out of character for the conservative manufacturer that has thus far been equally inflexible about designing its own airplanes.