As has become a CJP convention tradition, the second day of CJP 2023 began with a conversation between Ron Draper, president and CEO of Textron Aviation, and CJP Interim CEO David Miller.
Before delving into business, Draper shared with CJP members his personal connection to the expanding conflict in Israel. “My son is 24, married and going to grad school in Israel,” he said. “It took me three days to convince him to leave and then 3-4 more days of organizing the logistics to get them out.”
While CJP members enjoyed the Textron Aviation party and concert that closed out the first day of CJP 2023, Draper was monitoring the progress of his son’s flight. Fortunately, Draper noted “they landed in Dubai about an hour and a half ago,” news that drew applause from the audience.
Draper also recounted a recent illness capped by an emergency appendectomy. “I went to dinner with Jason Talley in Wichita. He insisted I get the salad,” he recounted. “I woke up in the middle of the night going, ‘that was a really bad salad.”
He went to the emergency room the next day, where he learned his appendix had to come out. “They kept saying, ‘you’re a little old for this to happen,’” Draper wryly added. “Yeah, thanks doc.”
While life has thrown a few curveballs at Draper this year, business remains very good for Textron Aviation – especially with a recent order for up to 1,500 Citation Ascend, Citation Latitude and Citation Longitude jets from NetJets.
“The press ran with that number, which was great,” Draper said, “but those are options. They’re not firm orders, but a renewal of the deal or extension of the deal with NetJets for next 15 years.”
Draper also discussed the company’s ongoing efforts to address lingering parts and workforce shortages. “You can have demand problems and supply problems,” he said. “I would always choose supply problems over demand problems. We’re trying lots of different things to improve capacity, from our external supply base to our internal facilities and manufacturing facilities.”
That includes a 180,000-square-foot Wichita parts distribution center expansion scheduled to be completed by the end of the year, which should help ease the situation. Draper noted that expansion carries another important benefit.
“We think the availability of skilled labor will be a problem for a very long time, so we’ve decided to make a major investment,” he said. “[The new warehouse] freed up [the existing] 100,000 square foot building, and we’re going to take that entire building, remodel it and turn it into a training and recruiting center.
“We’ve always needed a space where we can do more realistic training,” he continued, which at the remodeled facility will include classroom space and an actual aircraft fuselage for new employees to learn and hone their skills.
Textron Aviation has also invested in a new customer lounge and delivery center that is targeted to open next year. “It’ll be a fun place, with a coffee bar, TV, couches and work rooms,” he said.
Draper also announced at CJP availability of Garmin system release 7 for the Citation M2, as well as Garmin autothrottle capability added to the M2 Gen2 beginning in mid-2025. Both are part of the company’s ongoing efforts to make meaningful upgrades to the Citation line.
“Our strategy right now is work on one clean sheet airplane at a time,” he said, with that focus currently on the upcoming Beechcraft Denali single-engine turboprop. “Those consume a lot of resources, but then we’re also trying to upgrade as much other stuff as possible.”