Textron Aviation upgrading former Beechcraft plant

Textron Aviation is spending more than $1 million on upgrades to a major building on its East Campus.

The more than $1.28 million in work on Plant III — along Webb Road between Douglas and Kellogg — is part of a project to update the building’s interior and an overall facility “refresh,” Textron Aviation spokeswoman Sarah Estes said in an e-mail Tuesday.

Estes said that project began last year on the building. Eby Construction is the general contractor.

Plant III is where the company developed its production line for the new Cessna Citation Longitude business jet and assembled the Longitude flight test aircraft.

It also serves as the company’s Composite Center of Excellence, a designation it made to Plant III in 2015. That was about a year after its parent, Textron Inc., acquired Beechcraft and merged it with Cessna, creating Textron Aviation.

Under Beechcraft, Plant III was where it fashioned the composite fuselages of the Hawker 4000 and Premier business jets using special, multimillion-dollar equipment and autoclaves.

Under Textron Aviation’s new designation, Plant III serves as the hub for all of the company’s composite work.

This story was originally published April 4, 2017 at 11:16 AM with the headline "Textron Aviation upgrading former Beechcraft plant."