Wichita ? Sales and profits increased over the past quarter for Cessna Aircraft Co., and strong aircraft orders indicated more good results ahead, the company reported.

Third-quarter sales were up 35 percent from the same period a year ago, officials said Thursday, and profit more than doubled. Cessna has an order backlog of $4.9 billion, up $128 million from the second quarter.

Revenue and profits for the first three quarters were still down slightly from 2003.

Officials of Providence, R.I.-based Textron Inc., Cessna’s parent company, said the aircraft manufacturer had orders for 194 business jets to be delivered next year. The company expects to deliver 225 jets.

Officials also said Cessna had 151 business jet orders scheduled for delivery in 2006, but they would not say how many planes the company expected to deliver that year.

Lewis Campbell, Textron’s chairman, president and chief executive officer, said business jet deliveries should continue to increase steadily in the coming years barring a downturn in the global economy.

Cessna reported revenue of $699 million for the quarter that ended Oct. 2, compared with $516 million for the same quarter in 2003. Profits were $82 million for the quarter, up from $31 million a year earlier.

For the first nine months of this year, Cessna reported profits of $148 million on revenues of $1.62 billion, compared with $1.68 billion in revenue and $156 million in profit for the first nine months of 2003.

The company delivered 197 business jets last year and expects to deliver about 180 this year.