Independence Plant Capable Of Producing 150 Planes Per Year

Cessna announced at NBAA 2008 this week the planemaker will achieve its planned full-rate production level on the Citation Mustang sometime this month.

Once full-rate production is achieved, Cessna will average three Mustangs rolling off the production line each week at its Independence, KS manufacturing facility. At full rate, employees on the Mustang line are scheduled to deliver 150 entry-level business jets per year starting in 2009.

"Not only have we met our goal on production, our Independence workforce is doing it with Cessna's usual high quality," said Ron Alberti, Cessna senior vice president, Integrated Supply Chain. "We've really pioneered integration of the Textron Production System, based on well-known Lean principles, resulting in high quality and efficient production. It's fairly common now for us to deliver a squawk-free airplane."

The Citation Mustang, along with the entire line of Citation business jets, is on display this week at the National Business Aviation Association Meeting and Convention. The current fleet of Citation Mustangs totals roughly 115 aircraft that have accumulated more than 19,000 flight hours, and the high-time aircraft has logged more than 500 hours.

The six-place Citation Mustang has a top speed of 340 knots, a range of 1,150 nautical miles with NBAA IFR Reserves and a service ceiling of 41,000 feet. The aircraft features a Garmin G1000 system that includes two 10-inch primary flight displays, one 15-inch multi-function display and the integrated GFC700 dual-channel, fail passive, digital autopilot.

FMI: www.cessna.com