Mon, Apr 28, 2008
Upgraded Citation Features Pro Line 21 Avionics, FADEC
Employees at Cessna celebrated Friday's roll out of the first
production Citation XLS+ at the company's primary design and
manufacturing facilities in Wichita, KS.
The first production unit now will go to paint and interiors,
while two flight test aircraft continue to work toward type
certification. Federal Aviation Administration certification is
expected by mid-year, with deliveries starting before the end of
2008.
The upgrade to the mid-size Excel/XLS will feature the fully
integrated Rockwell Collins Pro Line 21 avionics suite and
electronically controlled (FADEC) engines from Pratt & Whitney
Canada. Exterior and interior restyling is also integrated into the
new model, most prominently the extended contour of the nose and
expanded seat widths, both introduced to more closely resemble
Cessna's Citation X and Citation Sovereign models.
Cessna states the Citation XLS+ will travel as fast as 440
knots, have a range of more than 1,800 nautical miles and land on
runways as short as 3,180 feet at its maximum landing weight, 2,700
feet at its typical landing weight.
Priced at $11.595 million, the XLS+ is billed by Cessna as the
most affordable stand-up cabin business jet. The family of
Excel/XLS aircraft comprises nearly 650 planes with an accumulated
total of more than 1.4 million flight hours.
The original Citation Excel was delivered in May 1998, followed
by the Citation XLS in July 2004. The 500th Excel/XLS was delivered
in June 2006.
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