Page 6 - Volume 20 Number 9

The Birth Of Th Cessna Citationjet first flight, April 29, 1991.
It’s hard to believe that the now-iconic Cessna CitationJet, a.k.a. the Model 525, was only a concept a bit over 25 years ago. As I’ve often said, time flies when you’re having fun. I well recall attending the CJ’s first-flight party on April 29, 1991 in Wichita, Kansas; despite an on-going downturn in general aviation’s fortunes in the 1980s, business jet sales continued to be healthy, and Cessna was anxious to cement its position as the #1 purveyor of light jets. The aviation press and early CJ customers were invited to witness the first liftoff of the new generation of Citations.
Contingency after contingency was employed, to keep the crowd entertained while waiting on the weather. We enjoyed interminable plant tours and briefings, hastily inverted after the scheduled 9 a.m. lift-off didn’t happen, and luncheon was eventually served to keep the hungry hounds of the press at bay.
Engineering vice-president Milt Sills, who had piloted the original Citation on its first flight, had wanted a 10,000-foot ceiling so the initial hop could be made entirely under VFR, but at noon we were
So, on the chosen morning, it was with great anticipation that about 400 of Cessna’s closest friends in the industry crowded around the prototype in typical late-spring weather for Wichita – meaning, it wasn’t the best for flying a brand-new aircraft. CEO Russ Meyer and Senior Marketing V.P. Roy Norris addressed the gathering, extolling the virtues of the new aircraft. Meanwhile, it rained, it blew and the ceiling hung low over the Air Capital – hardly the weather P.R. director Dean Humphrey had ordered for the event.
4 • TWIN & TURBINE
still waiting for a break. The wind increased to 40 mph, a mere Wichita zephyr, but beyond the established crosswind standards for a first flight.
Harking back a couple of decades, the first Citation also ran into weather delays on its initial flight. Similarly scheduled for 9 a.m., that flight finally took the air at 3:20 p.m., from the very same runway that was being used for the CitationJet’s first flight, almost 22 years later.
SEPTEMBER 2016
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