Citation Longitude Nears Certification

Textron Aviation’s Cessna Citation Longitude has broken its own distance record, going just beyond the promised 3,500-nm range. During a recent demo tour, the airplane flew from the Seletar Airport in Singapore (XSP) to Sydney, Australia (SYD), a distance of 3,504 nm. The trip was not set up as a record setting flight. The super-midsize business jet carried two pilots and five passengers to 41,000 feet where the airplane cruised at Mach 0.80 during the 7-hour, 39-minute flight.

In addition to showing off its flagship aircraft in the Asia-Pacific region, Textron Aviation is ramping up customer support availability there. As one of Textron’s international factory-direct service centers, the Singapore Service Center provides maintenance, inspections, parts, repairs, avionics upgrades, equipment installations, refurbishments and more. Textron Aviation’s president and CEO Scott Ernest said the company is evaluating additional factory-direct sites in the APAC region.

The Longitude is now closing in on FAA certification, which is expected very soon. The airplane is capable of carrying up to 12 passengers in the cabin, which features a six-foot ceiling and a flat floor. Passengers also have access to a walk-in luggage area and the cabin features high-speed Internet capability and a cabin management system that can be operated with a mobile device.

The Longitude is powered by a pair of Honeywell’s fadec-equipped HTF7700L engines. The engines produce 7,550 pounds of thrust and are integrated with autothrottles with envelope protection. Pilots benefit from Garmin’s G5000 avionics suite, which includes a head-up display and enhanced-vision capability.