Graham Warwick/ATLANTA
CESSNA AIRCRAFT PLANS to deliver the first Citation X high-speed business jet in June 1996, a delay of two months, following full US certification of the aircraft with an increased payload. The US manufacturer had been aiming for basic US certification of the Mach 0.92 aircraft by the end of 1995 (Flight International, 13-19 December).
Cessna says that the change results from customer demonstrations, which led to a decision to increase the Citation X's full-fuel payload from six passengers to seven. Although performance and structural certification had been completed, "...we had already designed enough margin into the engines and airframe to allow a payload increase without the necessity for restarting the tests", says vice-president of product development Milt Sills.
Maximum ramp take-off and landing weights, have been increased by 360kg. "With this payload increase, a fully equipped Citation X operating at long-range cruise speeds in the Mach 0.84 range with a payload of 1,400lb [635kg], will have an [instrument flight rules] range of 3,000nm [5,550km]," Sills says. With almost 2,000h flying accumulated on three test aircraft, the Citation X is meeting or exceeding performance goals, he says.
Cessna had planned to obtain basic certification of the aircraft by the end of 1995, and then complete autopilot, known icing and thrust-reverser approvals before the first customer delivery in April 1996. Now, the company will move directly to full US certification, which it plans to obtain before delivery of the first production aircraft, to golfer Arnold Palmer, in June 1996.
Palmer's aircraft was rolled out on 7 December and is to be flown on 21 December, exactly two years after the first flight of the Citation X prototype.
Source: Flight International
