Textron Aviation To Supply ATP Flight School With 10 More Skyhawk Piston Trainers

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Textron Aviation reported at the recent EAA AirVenture show that ATP Flight School has placed an order for 10 of Textron’s single-engine Cessna Skyhawk piston trainer models. ATP’s trainer fleet now includes 150 Skyhawk models. (Photo courtesy of Textron Aviation.)

ATP Flight School has ordered 10 high-wing Cessna Skyhawk 172 aircraft from Textron Aviation, owner of the Cessna brand and Beechcraft and Hawker brands. A longtime customer of Textron Aviation, ATP operates more than 40 flight schools in the United States and reports a total fleet of 321 aircraft. The latest Cessna Skyhawk order pushes the school’s fleet of the single-engine piston Skyhawks to roughly 150. Textron has delivered 50 new Skyhawk 172s to the school since 2016.

Trainer Of Choice

The country’s largest flight school, ATP provides type training and ATP (Airline Transport Pilot) CTP (Certification Training Program) certification. The school claims its fleet flies 260,000 hours annually and provides “nearly 6,800 FAA pilot certificates” per year. In addition to its 95 multi-engine aircraft, ATP operates about 225 single-engine aircraft. In a press release, Chris Crow, Textron Aviation vice president of piston sales, hailed the Skyhawk as “the world’s flight trainer of choice.”

“As ATP continues to grow its fleet to train the next generation of pilots, this order underscores the relevance of the time-tested Skyhawk platform and ATP’s unwavering confidence in Textron Aviation,” Crow said. Textron Aviation says it delivered 129 Skyhawk aircraft last year. Textron also claims it has placed 44,000-plus Skyhawks in service, meaning the aircraft has “trained more pilots than any other platform.”

FAA Compliant

The 10 Skyhawks that ATP ordered include Garmin G1000 NXi avionics with autopilot technology, a feature Textron says complies with the Federal Aviation Administration’s new Technically Advanced Aircraft rule enabling students to train exclusively in a Cessna Skyhawk to complete their commercial rating and checkrides for commercial and CFI (Certified Flight Instructor) ratings.

Seating four passengers and sporting a 36.1-foot (11-meter) wingspan, the Skyhawk uses a Lycoming IO-360-L2A 180-horsepower engine, supports a maximum 124 ktas (230 km/h) cruise speed and 640-nautical mile (1,185-kilometer) maximum range, and includes a standard Angle-of-Attack display system.

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Source: Textron Aviation

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