New Midsize Business Jet to Enter Service in 2025

Textron Aviation’s Cessna Citation Ascend mock-up will make its North American show debut at the upcoming National Business Aviation Association Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition (NBAA-BACE). 2023’s iteration of the annual event will span 17-19 October and be held in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Unveiled in May 2023, the Citation Ascend will bring a wholly redesigned cockpit, improved performance, and a more luxurious cabin to the midsize business jet market.

NBAA-BACE attendees may view the mock-up, which includes a highly-functional, luxuriously-comfortable cabin rendered in fully-sustainable materials, and a new hard-shell exterior resplendent in a custom livery, at Textron Aviation’s static display on Henderson Executive Airport (HSH).

Lannie O’Bannion, Textron Aviation senior vice-president of global sales and flight operations, stated: “We designed the Ascend to take the best from our legendary 560XL series—the most successful family of business jets—and set a new standard in terms of comfort and performance. For the first time in North America, customers can see for themselves how the Ascend can transform their business or travel experiences and give them versatility and flexibility to accomplish any mission, now and in the future.”

Cessna’s Citation Ascend will be motivated by a pair of Pratt & Whitney’s PW545D engines—powerplants designed specifically to deliver improved Specific Fuel Consumption (SFC), thrust, and Time Between Overhauls (TBO). The engines feature new materials and technologies—to include more efficient high-pressure compressors, enhanced single stage high-pressure turbine modules, and upgraded exhaust mixers by which fuel-consumption and noise are significantly reduced.

The Ascend’s PW545D engines are managed by a Full Authority Digital Engine Control (FADEC) architecture that enables the model’s auto-throttle system, thereby further reducing pilot workload and ensuring the mills operate in perpetuity at maximum efficiency.

Preliminary performance targets for the new Ascend model include:

• A four-passenger, high-speed cruise power range of 1,900-nautical-miles.
• An estimated maximum range of 2,100-nautical-miles.
• A cruise speed of 441-knots (0.66 Mach)
• Direct climb to FL450.

By virtue of extensive design improvements, Cessna’s new Ascend model is capable of carrying heavier payloads while retaining impressive short-field facility. Laden with four passengers and operating at high-speed cruise power, Ascend operators may legally undertake trips the likes of: London City, UK (LCY) to Athens, Greece (ATH); Helsinki, Finland (HEL) to Porto, Portugal (OPO); and La Mole, St. Tropez, France (LTT) to Prague, Czech Republic (PRG).

Meticulously designed to meet the needs of both Part 135 air-carriers and Part 91 corporate flight departments, the Ascend occasions a forward-thinking syncretism of segment-leading performance and luxury.

By way of cockpit appointments, Cessna’s Citation Ascend will offer operators state-of-the-art Garmin G5000 avionics featuring:

• A trio of 14-inch ultra high-resolution displays with split-screen capabilities.
• Standard dual Flight Management System (FMS) installations.
• Synthetic vision.
• Cockpit voice and data satellite transceiver.
• New Garmin advanced weather detection and avoidance technology.
• Optional Iridium data radio and Controller Pilot Data Link Communications (CPDLC) by which more direct routings between North America and Europe are supported.

Ascend flight-crews, by dint of the model’s avionics suite and inherent technologies, will enjoy diminished workload, enhanced situational awareness, flight-envelope protection, superior means by which to detect and avoid meteorological hazards, and advanced air-to-ground communication capabilities. Operators will benefit, also, from the mission versatility and flexibility made possible by the Ascend’s durability and outstanding performance. What’s more, the Garmin cockpit common to numerous Citation models—including the Ascend—simplifies pilot differences and upgrade training. Finally, passengers and principals will enjoy the many luxuries and cabin amenities the Ascend shares with Cessna’s bestselling Citation Latitude and flagship Citation Longitude models.

The Citation Ascend will include an unattended Honeywell RE100 [XL] Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) featuring self-management and bleed leak detection. The APU’s simplicity of operation, fuel-efficiency, and low-noise will allow Ascend air-crews to contemporaneously prepare for flights and attend to passenger comfort—such as cabin heating, cooling, and illumination—without significantly compromising aircraft endurance or rendering line personnel deaf.

To better understand and account for end-user expectations, Cessna engineers tasked with designing the Ascend worked closely with an advisory board comprising Citation owners, pilots, mechanics, and passengers.

Passengers approaching the Citation Ascend are apt to appreciate the machine’s sleek design and modern features. The model’s fully-customizable interior, which includes a flat floor and the generous legroom afforded thereby, allows customers to select from a broad range of standard and optional cabin motifs.

To maximize comfort, Textron Aviation predicated the design of the Ascend’s cabin seats largely upon customer feedback. Ascend buyers, when designing their respective interior layouts, may, in fact, specify the firmness of passenger seats.

The Ascend’s cabin is designed to accommodate nine passengers but can be configured to a maximum capacity of 12 occupants. The entirety of the model’s cabin seats will feature an electrically controlled release function by which the furnishings can be swiveled and tracked on their pedestals. Passenger comfort may be further enhanced by optional seat quilting, footrests, and electrically-controlled lumbar support. To provide additional in-flight access to storage space, the Ascend’s side-facing seats will feature fold-down backs.

Ascend passengers will be able to wirelessly control the aircraft’s cabin lighting, temperature, window-shades, and onboard entertainment. An optional Bongiovi sound system is available for the model.

The Cessna Citation Ascend’s cabin windows are of an all-new design and feature apertures nearly 15-percent larger than the legacy Citation windows they replace. The new windows afford ample natural light, which may be adjusted by way of translucent and opaque shade settings and wireless shade controls. Optional lighted window rings grant passengers considerable control over the Ascend’s cabin illumination and mood.

As digital connectivity is a near-indispensable aspect of modern life, Cessna’s Ascend model will include standard GoGo U.S. Avance L3 Max Wi-Fi and optional U.S. Avance L5 Wi-Fi. The aircraft will also offer optional Aviator 300 for Wi-Fi and worldwide calling.

To charge electronic devices, the Citation Ascend’s seats will be provisioned, one-and-all, with power. All told, the model will feature no fewer than 19 standard USB charging ports throughout its cabin and cockpit. Ergo, all Ascend crew and passengers will enjoy access to at least one charging port, first-in-class wireless phone-charging, and three standard universal outlets.

To better facilitate calm and peaceful flights, the Ascend will share its Citation Latitude stablemate’s advanced cabin acoustic system—the decibel-levels of which approximate those of an automobile traveling a smooth road. Ascend passengers will be able to engage in conversation, work, or relax in a distraction-free environment, arriving at their destinations refreshed, focused, and ready to pursue their professional or personal objectives.

The Citation Ascend is designed to improve upon the 560XL series' best-in-class maintenance intervals. Textron Aviation expects Ascend buyers enrolled in the company’s PowerAdvantage program to realize:

• Eighteen-month or eight-hundred-hour airframe maintenance intervals.
• Six-thousand-hour Time Between Overhauls (TBO) intervals.
• Three-thousand-hour hot-section inspection intervals.

The aircraft will include standard troubleshooting equipment such as:

• Electronic engine chip detection.
• Flight data acquisition, storage, and transmission via Pratt & Whitney’s proprietary FAST box system.
• In-flight diagnostics transmission via LinxUs and LinxUs Air.
• Troubleshooting and trend-monitoring via Textron Aviation’s Aircraft Recording System, which tracks over nine-thousand individual aircraft parameters during operations.

Ascend buyers will also benefit from superior engine, interior, and paint warranties, including:

• Five-year or three-thousand-hour engine warranty.
• Two-year paint and interior warranties

Informed by two-decades of customer feedback, the Citation Ascend’s design includes improvements such as a new wingtip for cleaner lines and edges; all LED lighting, to include a baggage-area pylon-integrated work-light for easier nighttime loading; and new, larger cockpit side-windows.

After the fashion of all Cessna and Beechcraft turbine products, the Citation Ascend will be capable of running on Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF). Buyers will be afforded the option to take delivery of their aircraft fueled with SAF, and may refuel with such wherever the stuff is available—including Cessna’s Wichita Service Center.

With more than one-thousand 560XLs delivered throughout the last quarter-century, fractional owners and charter operators consistently choose the Cessna Citation 560XL series for its unique combination of performance, efficiency, comfort, ease of operation, and broad range of missions. Textron Aviation plans to amend the 560XL’s type certification in a manner conducive to pilots transitioning from legacy 560XL models to the Ascend via an approved differences training curriculum. Such a measure dramatically decreases the complexity and cost of pilot training—particularly for Part 135 operators.

FMI: www.cessna.txtav.com