Upgraded Citation Features Pro Line 21 Avionics, FADEC

Employees at Cessna celebrated Friday's roll out of the first production Citation XLS+ at the company's primary design and manufacturing facilities in Wichita, KS.

The first production unit now will go to paint and interiors, while two flight test aircraft continue to work toward type certification. Federal Aviation Administration certification is expected by mid-year, with deliveries starting before the end of 2008.

The upgrade to the mid-size Excel/XLS will feature the fully integrated Rockwell Collins Pro Line 21 avionics suite and electronically controlled (FADEC) engines from Pratt & Whitney Canada. Exterior and interior restyling is also integrated into the new model, most prominently the extended contour of the nose and expanded seat widths, both introduced to more closely resemble Cessna's Citation X and Citation Sovereign models.

Cessna states the Citation XLS+ will travel as fast as 440 knots, have a range of more than 1,800 nautical miles and land on runways as short as 3,180 feet at its maximum landing weight, 2,700 feet at its typical landing weight.

Priced at $11.595 million, the XLS+ is billed by Cessna as the most affordable stand-up cabin business jet. The family of Excel/XLS aircraft comprises nearly 650 planes with an accumulated total of more than 1.4 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.

FMI: www.cessna.com