Textron Aviation has delivered the 2,000th Cessna Citation CJ-series business jet, following the handover on 31 May of a CJ3+ to a private owner and long-standing Cessna customer.
The CJ light business jet series was launched in the early 1990s with the first model – the Citation Jet – entering service in 1993. Since then, seven variants and upgrades have been produced by the airframer at its Wichita and Independence facilities in Kansas. These include the now out-of-production CJ1/1+, and CJ2/2+, the M2 – an upgraded CJ1+ introduced in 2015 – the CJ3+ and CJ4 – the largest and longest-range CJ to date.
Last year the Williams International FJ44-powered trio accounted for 73 of the 159 deliveries from Cessna’s Citation business jet stable. This compares with 97 shipments in 2015 from a total output of 166 Citations, including the now out-of-production entry-level M2, superlight XLS+ and midsize Latitude, Sovereign+ and X+.
Textron Aviation
Meanwhile, the airframer’s flagship Citation, the super-midsize Longitude, is on track for certification and service entry in the fourth quarter. Textron says the four aircraft in the flight-test campaign have notched up over 550h, and the fifth and final model is now in production and set to join the programme in the third quarter.
At the other end of the range, Textron has secured European and US approval for the Turbo Skyhawk JT-A, a high-performance version of the Skyhawk piston-single featuring a Garmin G1000 NXi cockpit and a 155hp (115kW) turbo-diesel Continental CD-155 engine. The latest model boasts a 960nm (1,940km) range – 50% more than the baseline Skyhawk – and a 134kt (248km/h) cruise speed – 10kt faster than its stablemate.
Textron Aviation
Cessna says the Skyhawk is the most delivered aircraft of all time, with more than 44,000 units shipped worldwide since the high-wing type entered service in the mid-1950s.
