Century Aerospace made a kind of history on Monday when the new-start company, designer of the Century Jet CA-100, canceled its scheduled NBAA press conference because it had no major news to announce.

Century president and CEO Bill Northrup said that he "respects the position of the aviation media and would rather cancel a press conference than offer soft descriptions of future news events."

(Show News comments: Is Northrup implying that some companies in this business schedule NBAA press conferences regardless of whether they have anything remotely new or interesting to announce, so that reporters have to listen to CEOs rabbit on about "optimizing customer value" and "delivering quality solutions" for hours on end? The very idea. For shame.)

Getting back to Century, Northrup said that "we have a situation where a lot is happening but we feel it would be poor judgment to announce anything as yet."

In an interview in early September with Show News, Northrup said Century was negotiating with several companies over the manufacture of the wing, empennage and engine nacelles of the new aircraft. (This summer, SGL-Hitco entered a risk-sharing partnership with Century to build the CA-100 fuselage.) The company was also looking for a site for its final assembly plant, a decision which could involve moving the operation from its current location in Albuquerque, NM. Northrup said that an agreement might be announced later in the year--not necessarily at NBAA.