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AIN Blog: Gambling Away a Heritage
The publicly known facts are scarce at this stage, but the in-flight structural failure of a Cessna Corvalis composite high-performance piston single in th
FAA investigators determined that seven feet of wing skin on a Cessna Corvalis piston single separated from its wing spar because excessive humidity in the company's factory in Chihuahua, Mexico, had prevented the bonded material from curing properly.
FAA investigators determined that seven feet of wing skin on a Cessna Corvalis piston single separated from its wing spar because excessive humidity in the company's factory in Chihuahua, Mexico, had prevented the bonded material from curing properly.

The publicly known facts are scarce at this stage, but the in-flight structural failure of a Cessna Corvalis composite high-performance piston single in the Kansas sky last December has disturbing ramifications for the whole general aviation industry.

 On September 22 the FAA announced it is proposing a $2.4 million civil penalty against Cessna after carbon composite elements of a Corvalis’s wing separated in flight while an FAA test pilot was performing a production audit test flight on Dec. 6, 2010. Nothing departed the aircraft, and the pilot made an emergency landing at Independence Airport, Kan. Four days later the FAA issued an emergency AD grounding the 13 Corvalises that used wings and parts built in the same Cessna facility since Dec. 17, 2009.

Nigel Moll
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