Aussie Air Reims F406 Caravan II ADL Finney

Cessna F172K take off from the grass runway

Reims Aviation Industries was a French

aircraft manufacturer An aerospace manufacturer is a company or individual involved in the various aspects of designing, building, testing, selling, and maintaining aircraft, aircraft parts, missiles, rockets, or spacecraft. Aerospace is a high technology ind ...

located in the city of

Reims Reims ( , , ; also spelled Rheims in English) is the most populous city in the French department of Marne, and the 12th most populous city in France. The city lies northeast of Paris on the Vesle river, a tributary of the Aisne. Founded b ...

, most recently producing the F406 Caravan II. Reims Aviation was a wholly owned subsidiary of GECI Aviation.

History

Max Holste, the company founder, built his first aircraft in 1931, a light two-seater aircraft called the SHB1. In 1946, he started his own aircraft company,

Avions Max Holste Avions Max Holste was a French aircraft manufacturer formed in 1933 by the French aeronautical engineer Max Holste. History Following the end of the Second World War the company concentrated on the design of a two-seater light training/touring ...

, in downtown Reims. In the 1950s, two new models were designed: the MH.1521 Broussard in 1950 and the MH.260 Super Broussard in 1959. In 1960, a cooperative agreement was signed with

Cessna Cessna () is an American brand of general aviation aircraft owned by Textron Aviation since 2014, headquartered in Wichita, Kansas. Originally, it was a brand of the Cessna Aircraft Company, an American general aviation aircraft manufacturing ...

to produce light aircraft for the European market. The company was officially born as Reims Aviation in 1962, mainly producing the FR172 ''Reims Rocket'', a more powerful version of the

Cessna 172 The Cessna 172 Skyhawk is an American four-seat, single-engine, high wing, fixed-wing aircraft made by the Cessna Aircraft Company.

. In 1989, Reims Aviation bought back all the shares held by Cessna and became a private French aircraft manufacturer. Production of the single-engined airplanes was halted, and only the F406 remained in production. The company entered receivership on 10 September 2013. On 25 March 2014, the Commercial Court of Reims approved the transfer of the Company's aircraft maintenance, cabin management, integration and installation systems assets to ASI Innovation and the transfer of its F406 assets to Continental Motors, Inc. With the disposition of the company's assets, its parent company, GECI Aviation, was also liquidated on 17 April 2014. Continental has indicated that it plans to continue the production of the F406 in

Mobile, Alabama Mobile ( , ) is a city and the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The population within the city limits was 187,041 at the 2020 census, down from 195,111 at the 2010 census. It is the fourth-most-populous city in Alabama ...

.Rod Simpsons for FlyCorporate (March 28, 2014)
Reims F406 sold to Continental Motors
, article retrieved January 2nd, 2015.

Products

Note that the F406 was the last model still in production at the time of bankruptcy. All aircraft were made in cooperation with Cessna. * Reims F150 * Reims F152 * Reims F172 * Reims FR172 Rocket * Reims F177 * Reims F182 * Reims F337 * Reims-Cessna F406

References

External links

Historique des avions Max Holste jusqu'à Reims Aviation
(french)
Interview de Pierre Clostermann, président de Reims Aviation
(french) ''Aviation Magazine, 1973''. {{Defunct aircraft manufacturers of France Defunct aircraft manufacturers of France Companies based in Reims Transport in Reims