Textron Aviation announced today that the Cessna Citation Longitude “super-midsize” jet has received its FAA type certificate. In a probably excusable bit of hyperbole, Textron Aviation’s President and CEO Ron Draper proclaimed that “the Longitude revolution starts now.” The Longitude received its provisional TC in late 2018.
According to Cessna, the Longitude test fleet amassed almost 6000 flight hours exploring some 11,000 “test points” and completing a 31,000-NM “world tour.” Cessna says the Longitude went through “the most robust flight, structural and component qualification testing completed on a Citation to date.”
“The real success of the program comes from the talent and customer focus our employees bring to work every day,” Draper said. “Their hard work and dedication have been spectacular through every step of the program, from initial concept, through design and testing, production and now into product support.”
The Longitude seats up to 12 with “class-leading legroom” and “cabin sound levels that are nearly twice as quiet as the nearest competitor.” Powered by a pair of Honeywell’s FADEC-controlled HTF7700L high-bypass turbofans with 7550 pounds of thrust, the Longitude can cruise at 483 knots, and can achieve a long-range cruise of 3500 NM. Cessna says it has a full-fuel payload of 1600 pounds. The Longitude has the same cabin cross section of the Latitude but the fuselage length has been increased to accommodate another row of seats.
“The Longitude is the best flying Citation yet,” said Ed Wenninger, chief pilot for Textron Aviation engineering flight test. The FADEC-equipped Honeywell HTF7700L turbofan engines feature fully integrated autothrottles with envelope protection and provide responsiveness and excellent power.”
The $24 million Longitude first flew at the end of 2016, received its provisional TC in late 2018 and was slated to be certified early this year.
Another example that you can fill the seats or fill the tanks, but you can’t do both. With full fuel, the payload shrinks to about eight average people with no luggage. With bags, the passenger list drops to about 6 or 7 people. It’s doubtful that most customers will opt for 12 passenger seats. With a dozen souls on board, they would probably be lucky to carry enough fuel for a two hour flight with reserves.
Congratulations.
Is “twice as quiet” marketing-speak for “half as loud?”
Yes, and day by day it’s more annoyingly present all product hawking.
In most airplanes, there is plenty of room in the wings for more fuel. So as an aircraft designer, the path to maximum flexibility and utility is to make the tanks so big that the “full fuel payload” is little more than the minimum crew compliment. Then the operator has the greatest range of options to trade range for load.
The easiest way to maximize the full-fuel payload is to artificially limit the size of the fuel tanks.
There probably are operators (customers) who need to move a dozen people from Chicago to Detroit for a business meeting, and then back again in the same day.