Textron Aviation is rolling out at the NBAA show in Las Vegas a series of upgrades to its Cessna Citation family of light business jets that will represent “Gen 3” variants of the M2, CJ3 and CJ4 platforms.
“I really think this shakes up the entire light jet industry and [represents] enormous enhancements to our existing product lineup,” says chief executive Ron Draper.
The jets will come with Garmin’s emergency auto-land system as a standard feature, which the company says builds off auto-throttles introduced in the Gen2 series. The updates are based on feedback from Textron Aviation’s customer advisory board.
“This is the culmination of those discussions,” says Jimmy Beeson, Textron Aviation’s director of product development. “This particular system provides a means of landing the aircraft in the unlikely event that the pilot is incapacitated.”
The auto-land system will be a critical feature for the primarily owner-operated light jets, he adds. The system can be engaged via several methods. The first is manual, as passengers can push a button in the cockpit to initiate an automated landing.
“There is also some logic built into the system, aside from the button, that will actually look for a pilot’s interaction and detect pilot incapacitation,” Beeson says. “Every few minutes, it checks and will automatically go into emergency mode when the pilot is not interacting with the system on a continued basis.”
When engaged, the auto-land system takes control of the aircraft, informs air traffic control (ATC) of an emergency and calculates the most suitable airport for an emergency landing – all while tracking and avoiding dangerous weather formations. The system also provides flight updates and opportunities to interact with ATC for passengers throughout the protocol.
“The aircraft will descend, conduct the approach, conduct the landing, brake the aircraft and then shut down the engines and give passengers instructions on how to depart,” Beeson says.
In the event of rapid de-pressurisation of the cabin, the aircraft would automatically descend to around 15,000ft and wait for the pilot to interact with the system, potentially after regaining consciousness. No interaction from the pilot would prompt the emergency auto-land sequence.
Draper says Textron Aviation does not view the auto-land as a step toward fully autonomous flight in the future, but rather an important safety feature for single-pilot aircraft.
”The technology is out there; it’s a question of [whether] passengers accept it,” he says. ”It’s possible to design an airplane that can take off and land without a pilot… I don’t know that passengers want to get on [an aircraft] with nobody up front yet, but that might happen one day.”
The CJ4 Gen3, the first aircraft slated to feature Garmin’s new G3000 Prime avionics suite, is expected to enter service in 2026. The M2 Gen3 and CJ3 Gen3 are due to enter service the following year.
DENALI NEARING SUMMIT
The Gen3 upgrades come as part of a continuum of improvements that Textron, which manufacturers Beechcraft and Cessna aircraft, has rolled out in recent years as it builds on its light jet platforms.
Textron Aviation announced updates to the M2 variant in 2021 – primarily refreshing the type’s cabin – and last year added auto-throttles as standard equipment to the M2 Gen2, which it hopes to certificate and start delivering to customers in 2025.
The aircraft manufacturer revealed the Gen2 variant of the Cessna Citation CJ3 at last year’s NBAA show, including cabin and cockpit changes, plus an auto-throttle system.
The M2 Gen 2, CJ3 Gen 2 and Citation Ascend are all on track to clear FAA certification next year, Draper says. The long-awaited Beechcraft Denali turboprop, which is also equipped with Garmin’s auto-land technology, is also targeted for service entry in 2025.
Certification of that clean-sheet aircraft has been pushed back repeatedly, with certification of the type’s GE Aerospace Catalyst engine reportedly holding back the process.
To date, a trio of Denali prototypes have logged 950 flights and a total of about 2,250 flight hours.
“We’ve got four programmes to certify in 2025; our engineering team has a lot of work on their plate,” Draper says. “The fourth one is the Denali – we’re very excited about that airplane. We’re taking in back to NBAA, and we’re really… locking down the engineering. Now we’ve got to start certification flying with the FAA and work through that last certification process over the next year.”
He adds that Textron Aviation is “excited about its potential”, defining the Denali’s prospective market as “that single-engine turboprop” with a pressurised cabin. It will compete primarily with the Daher TBM and Pilatus PC-12, according to Draper.
“That market sells 180 airplanes a year,” he says. ”And we don’t have a product in that market space now… The Denali is going to come in at the larger end of that market, really kind of where the PC-12 sits, and you know, we think this is going to sell; we think we should get our fair market share.”
Draper declines to describe GE Aerospace’s progress with the Catalyst, asserting that the turboprop engine is “in a steep glide slope to certification”.
Beeson adds that “the market is very excited about the Beechcraft Denali”. The aircraft has appeared for the past two years at the EAA AirVenture Oshkosh show and at NBAA in 2023, generating strong customer feedback.
“They love the cabin size,” he says. ”It feels like jet inside, as far as the fit and finish, and we’re wider and taller than a PC-12 – and more fuel efficient. Those are good specs.”
SUPPLY CHAIN & TALENT TROUBLE
Textron Aviation has built about 250,000 aircraft – more than any aircraft manufacturer in the world, say company executives – including some 10,000 jets and 10,000 turboprops. Most of its market is based in North America, with strong presences in Latin America, Europe and the Middle East.
The venerable aircraft maker has not been immune from industry-wide supply chain issues, however, as aerospace companies continue their years-long recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. Parts and materials are sourced more easily now than during the lows of mid-2022, but Draper says that “not a lot has changed” during the past 12 months.
“We wouldn’t say it’s all the way back to what we consider healthy,” he says. “We have less suppliers with problems but we still have some suppliers struggling to meet our need dates, so we’re still seeing obsolescence. We’re still seeing material substitutions being necessary.”
Textron Aviation is also struggling with labour issues. A machinists’ strike in Wichita appeared in late September to have derailed the company’s plan to exhibit at the NBAA show. But then the company reversed course on 2 October, saying that it “will return” to the show “with a static display of industry-leading aircraft”. The strike was resolved on the eve of the show, with Textron Aviation’s machinists ratifying a five-year labour deal.
Textron Aviation plans to have a Cessna Citation Longitude, Latitude, CJ4 Gen2 and M2 Gen2 on the NBAA show’s static display at Henderson Executive airport near Las Vegas. It will also display mock-ups of its Citation Ascend and CJ3 Gen2.
The manufacturer has observed a longer-term trend of workers needing more up-front training upon being hired. In general, encouraging people to enter the aerospace manufacturing trade has been difficult.
“It seems like every industry, especially the manufacturing industry, is talking about how we get talented people, and we’re no exception to that,” Draper says. “It’s a big challenge and a big opportunity for us… There’s a shortage out there, and there’s a growing skills gap. You know, 30 years ago, it was easier to find people who organically inclined and knew how to use tools and those types of things. Today, that’s less the case.”
Textron Aviation is seeking to “rapidly expand” its pipeline of skilled workers, including by improving its on-boarding and training processes, he adds. “If they’re not walking in the door with A&P certifications, or they’re walking in the door with less skills, how are we going to take a less-skilled person and very rapidly make them a highly skilled person in our industry?”
To that end, the aerospace manufacturer has remodelled a former parts warehouse into a 9,290m (100,000sq ft) training centre that will serve as a “one-stop” for prospective and newly hired workers, Draper says. “We’re very excited and we think this will help go a long way towards the recruiting and training of those skilled employees in the future.”
