Future Availability In Caravans, SEP Line
Welcome to the future... and it's gonna be SO cool. Hot on the
heels of Garmin's announcement of FAA certfication for its G1000
Synthetic Vision Technology (SVT) system, planemaker Cessna
announced Monday it will offer SVT on all its G1000-equipped
aircraft.
First up for the new, advanced technology will be the Citation
Mustang, which will also be the first business jet to integrate
Garmin’s SVT. Cessna expects to offer SVT on the Caravan
family and all Cessna single-engine piston aircraft in the future.
(Can you imagine a Skyhawk with synthetic vision? Like we said,
this is gonna be cool -- Ed.)
Cessna plans to offer SVT for the Mustang as a factory option
later this year. Current plans also call for the Garmin system to
be available as an option for single-engine piston aircraft and
Caravans within a year. In most cases, SVT capability will be
available for retrofit to earlier production Cessna G1000-equipped
aircraft.
As ANN reported earlier
Monday, Garmin's SVT offers an entirely new level of
situational awareness for pilots, by displaying the
aircraft’s position on an enhanced topographical database.
The combination of synthetic terrain and terrain awareness and
warning systems (TAWS) helps pilots identify hazards to their
current flight path by displaying terrain and obstacles that pose a
threat to the aircraft with the appropriate TAWS terrain alert
color.
Garmin SVT also includes pathways, or highway-in-the-sky (HITS),
which is depicted as three-dimensional rectangles that guide the
pilot along enroute legs, VNAV legs, GPS/WAAS vertical approach
procedures, ILS approach procedures, and arrival and departure
procedures.
Now certified in 47 countries, the Citation Mustang became the
first of a new category of entry-level jets to achieve full
certification from the Federal Aviation Administration (September
2006) and the European Aviation Safety Agency (May 2007). Cessna
delivered 45 Citation Mustangs in 2007 and the fleet has
accumulated more than 10,500 hours.
The six-place Citation Mustang has a top speed of 340 knots, a
range of 1,150 nautical miles (with NBAA IFR Reserves) and a
service ceiling of 41,000 feet, enabling more efficient operations
above most weather and commercial traffic.
From Cessna’s facility in Independence, KS the company
expects to deliver 100 Mustangs in 2008 and reach its targeted full
production rate of about 150 aircraft per year by the end of
2009.