There is new evidence that when Cessna Aircraft CEO Scott Ernest said at the NBAA Convention in October that the Skycatcher has “no future,” he meant it. While no official word has come out of Wichita, Cessna has removed all traces of the LSA from the single-engine product line on its website, seemingly moving the Skycatcher program to the history books. Cessna did not immediately reply to our requests for comment.
Assuming the program is indeed done, it’s a quiet demise for Cessna’s lightest airplane after a troubled history. The Skycatcher was plagued with challenges from the start. The light sport model’s tail design had to be revised after a prototype spun and crashed late in the development phase. There was negative reaction from the flying public after the Wichita, Kansas-based company announced it would produce the Skycatcher in China.
