First deliveries are scheduled within weeks for the twin-engine Cessna turboprop.
Textron Aviation is preparing to deliver the first air ambulance version of its Cessna SkyCourier turboprop aircraft within weeks.
The manufacturer’s vice president of defence and special mission sales, Bob Gibbs, revealed the updated timeline at the Air & Space Forces Association conference near Washington DC on 14 September.
Algeria’s Tassili Travail Aérien (TTA) will receive two of the modified high-wings, Gibbs says, as Textron works to diversify the aircraft’s utility beyond cargo operations. The order was first announced in 2025.
“The customer can literally take a couple seats out, put the medical kit in the seat tracks, lock it down, plug it in, and now we have a medical aircraft,” says Gibbs. “So it’s meant to be modular.”
First certified in 2022, the SkyCourier is designed to function as a flexible freighter, with FedEx as the launch customer. From that, Textron has developed variants that allow for a combination of passengers and freight, or up to 19 all-passenger capacity.
Textron is also targeting defence logistics, pitching the SkyCourier as an agile supply tool to get equipment to where it’s needed more quickly and with less risk.
The company announced a partnership with autonomy start-up Merlin Labs to develop an uncrewed variant, known as SkyCourier UX.
“Traditional logistics doesn’t work anymore,” says Gibbs. “The iron mountain and the row of trucks taking equipment to where the warfighter is has been disrupted, and of course we have potential theatres where there [aren’t] roads, and so we’ve got to get there in other ways.”
An announcement on the first military deliveries may come within weeks as well, Textron executives say. Belgium placed the first defence order, with contractor Sabena Engineering agreeing to buy five SkyCouriers in April 2026.
Additional reporting by Ryan Finnerty
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