Cessna Celebrates Two Fleet Milestones

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Cessna last week announced that two of its airplane fleets had reached significant time-in-service milestones: The Cessna Citation business jet fleet has surpassed the 20-million flight hour milestone and the Cessna Caravan has accumulated more than 10 million flight hours. The announcement was made at the annual Sun ‘n Fun Fly-In, at which the company had a major presence. According to Cessna, more Citations have been sold than any other business jet. Through system upgrades and new model introductions, Citations have consistently set the standard of utility, comfort and performance. Today, Cessna produces eight Citation models — from the worlds first fully certified very light jet, the Citation Mustang, to the worlds fastest business jet, the .92 Mach Citation X. Since entering service 35 years ago, nearly 5,000 Citations have been delivered to customers around the world. Meanwhile, 1,650 Caravans have been delivered in its more than 20-plus year production history. As a testament to the airplanes durability and reliability, the biggest Caravan customer — FedEx — has demonstrated a sustainable dispatch rate of over 99 percent. Cessna designed the Caravan for use as an outback utility aircraft in the early 1980s. Equipped with a 600-hp Pratt & Whitney PT6A-114, it was the first turbine-engine-powered, single-engine aircraft put into production by a major aircraft manufacturer. The first Caravan was delivered in 1985.

Cessna said it will deliver its 5,000th Citation later this year. Recently, the company celebrated a number of delivery milestones including delivery of the 1,000th CitationJet series aircraft in January, delivery of the 500th Citation XLS in June 2006, and delivery of the 100th Citation Sovereign and 100th CJ3 in November 2006. The first Citation flew in 1969, gained type certification in late 1971, and entered service in 1972. The single-engine turboprop Caravan is used in operations such as passenger and freight transport, aerial mapping and medical evacuation. Its cabin can be configured for up to 12 passengers and an aftermarket kit is available to configure it for amphibious operations. The Caravan is available in two basic versions and can be configured at the factory for passenger or cargo operations.

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