Cessna Concludes Third Quarter With UnprecedentedOrder Backlog.

Business Editors

NEW ORLEANS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 10, 2000

Today, at the National Business Aviation Association Convention, Cessna Aircraft announced a record backlog of customer orders for its family of Citation business jets, Caravan utility turboprops and Single Engine Piston

As recently as the end of 1999, Cessna's backlog stood at $5.3 billion. At the close of business September 30th, the value of orders booked stood at $6.1 billion.

Gary Hay, Cessna's CEO, commented, "The accelerating customer acceptance of our broad line of product offerings, supported by the strong economies in markets we serve, have come together to produce this unprecedented demand." Hay continued, "While we are doing everything possible to shorten the lead time for availability, an impressive number of customers have demonstrated a willingness to wait for a new Citation."

Cessna President and COO Charlie Johnson remarked: "New product development is a key strategy at Cessna. With the Sovereign program progressing as planned, and the recent certification of the Citation CJ1, CJ2 and Encore, we could not be more pleased with our lineup of current and future products. More importantly, by the level of orders being placed, customers are continuing to demonstrate confidence in our aircraft and the world-class customer service that we've always provided."

Cessna will have all Citation, Caravan and Single Engine Piston aircraft on display at the NBAA meeting in New Orleans this week, and will also be announcing major improvements to the world's fastest business jet, the Citation X, and enhancements to the 2001 single-engine product line with the addition of two new models, the new 182T Skylane and T182T Turbo Skylane.

Cessna Aircraft Company is a subsidiary of Textron Inc. (NYSE:TXT), an $11.6 billion, global, multi-industry company with market-leading businesses in Aircraft, Automotive, Industrial and Finance. Textron has a workforce of over 68,000 employees and major manufacturing facilities in 30 countries. Textron is among Fortune magazine's "Global Most Admired Companies." Additional information is available at www.textron.com.