The most popular family of private jets ever built, the Cessna Citation family stands as a testament to how good engineering can turn the laughing stock of the aviation community into a staple of almost every airport!
With over 8,000 delivers and 41 million flight hours logged to date, it may surprise you to learn that initial reviews of the family’s earliest variants were highly critical, with many calling it the “Slowtation” due to its low cruising speeds.
In time, however, many of these critics came to not only respect the Cessna Citation family but even come to love it…
Background
Founded in 1927 by Clyde Cessna and his business partner Victor Roos, the Cessna-Roos Aircraft Company (later the Cessna Aircraft Company after Roos’ departure only a month in) initially made a name for itself producing touring aircraft.
After the departure of Clyde Cessna in 1934, and the arrival of his nephews Dwane and Dwight Wallace, the company continued producing touring aircraft but began to slowly produce aircraft for dual-civilian and military use.
When the US entered WWII, Cessna aided in the war effort like most other aircraft manufacturers and produced multiengine trainer aircraft known as the T-50 Bobcat. These were used by the likes of the RCAF, US Army Air Corps and US Navy.
But here is where Cessna differed from its competitors.
Throughout the war, Cessna had avoided designing aircraft that would only attract military customers. Though their only client, Cessna produced aircraft that could be used by the military during war and civilian operators during peacetime.
And this allowed them to survive the postwar slowdown, as they marketed brand new designs to a generation of pilots who learned to fly to protect their country and still wanted to fly… albeit for pleasure.
Several of their smaller aircraft began to appeal to a certain type of customer: high net worth individuals who wanted all the prestige of owning their own aircraft without splashing out for an airliner, or corporations for use as a more discreet VIP transport.
With the release of the Learjet 23 – the world’s first purpose-built business jet – in 1963, Cessna began to see many of their customers, some of whom had been Cessna customers for over a decade, replace their Cessna aircraft with the Learjet 23.
Fearing they would lose their competitive advantage, Cessna began designing their own corporate jet…
Citation I
Known internally as the Model 500, Cessna initially marketed the aircraft as the FanJet 500. However, after a lengthy redesign, resulting in a longer fuselage, repositioned engines and an all-new tail, Cessna rebranded the FanJet as the Cessna Citation I.
Able to carry up to eight passengers at a speed of Mach 0.705 (at a time when most other business jets flew between Mach 0.75 and Mach 0.8) over a distance of 2,459Â km (1,528Â mi; 1,328Â nmi), the Citation was certified by the FAA on September 9 1971.
Having attracted many of the clients the company had lost during the 1960’s, as well as gaining many new ones (especially those scaling up from older Cessna models), the Citation I sold quite well. 689 models in 13 years to be exact.