Wichita, Kansas - May 30, 2006 - Cessna Aircraft Co., a Textron (NYSE: TXT) company, has awarded the 2006 Vern Lowe award to long-time aviation legend Pete Ginocchio, president of Aviation Global Support and an early pioneer in establishing the global maintenance systems for the Citation business jet as director of customer service for Cessna in the 1970s.
The award was made at Cessna's annual Citation customer conference, which brings hundreds of operators together for several days of meetings and presentations designed to enhance maintenance procedures for the Citation line of business jets, the most popular line of business jets in history.
"Pete created the Cessna Citation global customer support network that today is the best in the business," said Ron Chapman, Cessna senior vice president, Customer Support. "It is so very appropriate for Pete to win this award recognizing his outstanding contribution to Cessna Citation maintenance."
Ginocchio served as Cessna customer service director from 1970 to 1977, covering the years just prior to and just after introduction of the Citation line of jets in 1972. Prior to his tenure with Cessna, Ginocchio held a number of posts from 1956 to 1970 with Pan American World Airways. He has also held senior customer support posts with Canadair (now Bombardier), British Aerospace and Dassault.
The Vern Lowe Award is named for the chief of maintenance at Upjohn Pharmaceuticals, an early Cessna customer. Lowe, sharing his vast operational experience with Cessna engineers, helped mature the Citation line and pave the way for improvements in subsequent models that have helped keep the Cessna Citation as the world's most popular business jet line. The award named for him has been given at the annual Cessna Citation customer conference since 1986.
Also at this year's conference, the annual High Utilization award went, for the seventh consecutive year, to Suncore Energy Inc., which flew their Citation 1,674.7 hours in 2005.
Based on unit sales, Cessna Aircraft Company is the world's largest manufacturer of general aviation airplanes. In 2005, Cessna delivered 1,157 aircraft and reported revenues of about $3.5 billion. Since the company was originally established in 1927, more than 187,000 Cessna airplanes have been delivered to nearly every country in the world. The global fleet of more than 4,500 Citations is the largest fleet of business jets in the world. More information about Cessna Aircraft Company is available at www.cessna.com.
Textron Inc. is a $10 billion multi-industry company operating in 33 countries with approximately 37,000 employees in continuing operations. The company leverages its global network of aircraft, industrial and finance businesses to provide customers with innovative solutions and services. Textron is known around the world for its powerful brands such as Bell Helicopter, Cessna Aircraft, Jacobsen, Kautex, Lycoming, E-Z-GO and Greenlee, among others. More information is available at www.textron.com.