BY ANDY TAYLOR
Montgomery County Chronicle

WICHITA — Continuing to struggle in a sluggish economy, Cessna Aircraft Company announced Wednesday it was laying off 2,300 workers companywide, including 121 from Cessna’s Independence assembly plant, and closing its Oregon plant.

That closure of the Bend, Ore., facility could actually benefit the Independence plant as the Bend facility will relocate its entire production line of the Corvalis 350 and Corvalis 400 TT aircraft to Montgomery County.

Doug Oliver, corporate communications spokespereson, said the transition will take place during the summer. However, Oliver said it was unknown how mnay jobs will be transferred to Independence or how the Corvalis assembly line will impact the existing assemblies of single-engine and Citation Mustang business jets at Independence.

Oliver said the Bend, Ore., facility currently has 109 workers.

Cessna chief executive officer Jack Pelton said the layoffs and Bend, Ore., plant closure were needed as Cessna tries to restructure its product line amid declining plane orders.

The Wichita-based company said Wednesday that it had started laying off 1,600 hourly workers across the company. An additional 700 salaried workers will lose their jobs in mid-June, and a companywide, four-week shutdown starts June 22.

Of the hourly jobs being cut beginning Wednesday, 1,300 will be in Wichita and 121 will come from Cessna’s manufacturing plant in Independence.

Most of the 700 salaried jobs will come from Wichita, the company said.

In addition, Cessna is discontinuing its Columbus business jets, built in Wichita.

Cessna’s parent company Textron Inc. said Tuesday its first-quarter profit fell 63 percent as the recession drove down demand for its corporate jets. It also slashed its 2009 profit outlook. Textron, which also makes Bell helicopters and turf-maintenance equipment, is eliminating 8,300 jobs, or 20 percent of its global work force.