Cessna Launches Sixth Citation Special Olympics Airlift With Harrison Ford

Cessna provided an inspiring addition to the early hours of last month's NBAA 2008, with the announcement of the company's sixth annual Citation Special Olympics Airlift Program, to help athletes travel to the 2010 USA National Games to be held near Lincoln, NE.

This will be the sixth time Cessna has organized the extensive airlift campaign to benefit Special Olympics. The company put out the call Sunday for volunteers to help transport more than 2,000 athletes and coaches from across the nation on their Citation jet aircraft.

"The success of the airlift starts with our Citation owners committing to provide a safe way for the athletes, coaches and families to travel to the games," said Cessna Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Jack J. Pelton. "We also rely on support from Cessna employees and volunteers, the Federal Aviation Administration, on-site airport officials, local fixed base operators, hundreds of volunteers from the community and the Special Olympics organization. It's amazing to see the collaboration that happens for this massive event."

Cessna also introduced the event's honorary chairman... and noted that future athletes may have the opportunity to fly with Han Solo himself.

"The Citation Special Olympics Airlift is a unique event that brings together the general aviation community to carry out the largest peacetime airlift in the world," said actor and Citation owner Harrison Ford. "This is just another example of how GA owners and operators give back, whether it's encouraging young people to learn to fly through EAA’s Young Eagles organization or providing transportation to special athletes."

Cessna expects to recruit at least 325 Citations to transport 2,000 athletes to Lincoln on July 17 and return athletes to their home base on July 24.

The first Citation Special Olympics Airlift in 1987 involved more than 130 Citations carrying nearly 1,000 athletes to and from South Bend, Ind. The last airlift, in 2006, included 235 Citations transporting 1,500 athletes to and from Des Moines, IA.

Corporations and individual Citation owners and operators in every state are needed to donate their Citation business jet(s), pilots and fuel for the airlift. While the games are centrally located, more than 3,000 athletes will travel from all over the US to compete.

"The airlift would not be possible without the support of Citation owners and operators, so our goal as event organizers is to make participation as easy as possible. Going to on line-only registration will streamline the process," said Rhonda Fullerton, Cessna Community Relations manager and director of the Citation Special Olympics Airlift.

For the first time, registration is exclusively on line, at the FMI link below.

Check Out Details Of Cessna's Sixth Citation Special Olympics Airlift With Aero-TV!

FMI: www.airlift.cessna.com, www.aero-tv.net, www.youtube.com/aerotvnetwork, http://twitter.com/AeroNews