The first Cessna built abroad

On 4 April 1963 a Cessna 172 took off from Reims. Nothing remarkable about that, except that it had been built in France: it was the first single-engined Cessna ever made outside the United States. The engines and many parts still came from Kansas, but the airframes were assembled in workshops on the rue Gosset that had, until 1961, been turning out Broussard bush aircraft for the French Army. For the next three decades almost every new Cessna sold in Europe carried an F prefix, for France, and the name Reims-Cessna.

From Broussards to Skyhawks

The company was Max Holste’s, renamed. Holste’s firm had over-reached with its twin-engined Super Broussard; on 15 February 1960 Cessna, then the world’s largest light-aircraft maker, bought into it to build its aircraft for the European market, and Nord Aviation took over the twin. On 30 January 1962 the company became Reims Aviation, with 280 staff. Holste soon left for Brazil. Daily output reached three or four single-engined aircraft for long stretches, and the 1,000th Reims-Cessna single rolled out on 25 June 1968, by which time the firm had moved to a new factory and runway at Prunay outside the city.

Clostermann in the chair

From 1 January 1970 the chairman was Pierre Clostermann, the Second World War fighter ace and best-selling author who had championed the Broussard. Under him Reims built twelve single-engined types, from the F150 trainer to the retractable FR182, and twin-engined push-pull F337 Skymasters from 1969. Its own creation was the FR172 Reims Rocket, a more powerful 172 sold only in Europe. Reims also made subassemblies for Dassault’s Mirage and Falcon, the Transall, ATR and Airbus. By 1980 it employed 551 people, and the 6,000th Reims-Cessna, an F172, rolled out in January 1982.

Going it alone with the Caravan II

The last great Reims design was its own twin turboprop. The F406 Caravan II, a PT6-powered development of the Cessna 404 Titan, first flew on 22 September 1983. Fourteen seats and two engines suited European rules that long required multi-engine aircraft for commercial instrument flights, and it found a niche in surveillance with the French Army, customs and coastguards. In March 1989 a French investment company, CFCI, bought out Cessna’s shares; the single-engined lines were halted, and from then on the F406 was the only aircraft Reims built.

Receivership and a move to Alabama

Decline followed. In March 2003 the company was split: subcontracting went one way, the F406 to Reims Aviation Industries, floated on Alternext in 2007 and controlled by GECI from 2010, with just 70 staff. It entered receivership on 10 September 2013 with the 98th production F406 still unfinished. On 25 March 2014 the Reims commercial court transferred its assets to ASI Innovation and the F406 rights to Continental Motors, owned by China’s AVIC, which planned to build it in Mobile, Alabama. In all, Reims had delivered 6,367 aircraft.

Factories

• Rue Gosset works · Reims — Original Max Holste and Reims-Cessna works until 1967
• Prunay plant and aerodrome · Prunay, about 15 km from Reims — Built from 1967; runway extended to 1,140 m in 1972

People

• Max Holste · founder of the original company — Left after Cessna took control
• Pierre Clostermann · chairman — WWII fighter ace; head of the company from 1 January 1970
• Jean-Paul Chaufour · chairman — Led the company from 1995 after his family’s CFCI bought Cessna out

Records and firsts

• First single-engined Cessna built outside the United States, 4 April 1963