Jets Just Keep Coming Out Of Wichita

Cessna Aircraft Company tells ANN last week the planemaker reached another milestone in the development program for the latest version of the evergreen Citation family. The Citation XLS+ completed its first flight.

The flight, which lasted one hour and 30 minutes, was conducted at Rockwell Collins’ facility in Cedar Rapids, IA.

"With the flight progressing as planned and the aircraft performing as expected, this first flight was a great success," said Cessna Citation XLS+ Program Manager Kevin Steinert. "The integration of the new Collins Pro Line 21 and Pratt & Whitney’s FADEC (full authority digital engine control) equipped engines went smoothly and we look forward to continuing this program on schedule."

The aircraft has since returned to Cessna’s primary design and manufacturing facilities in Wichita for further evaluation and testing. Type certification of the XLS+ is expected in the first quarter of 2008 and first deliveries are scheduled in mid 2008.

Priced at USD $11.595 million, the XLS+ is an evolution of the Excel and XLS stand-up cabin business jets. The family of Excel/XLS aircraft comprise of 575 planes having accumulated nearly 1.2 million flight hours.

The original Citation Excel was delivered in May 1998 followed by the Citation XLS in July 2004. The 500th Excel/XLS was delivered in June 2006 (shown below), making the Excel/XLS the best-selling aircraft of all business jet models since its introduction.

The Citation XLS+ is designed to travel at 440 KTAS, have a range of more than 1,800 nm, climb direct to 45,000 ft in 29 minutes, and land on runways as short as 2,700 ft at its typical landing weight.

FMI: www.cessna.com