Textron Aviation this month celebrated 45 years since the first Cessna Citation jet was delivered to a customer.
The aircraft, a Citation 500 was shipped to American Airlines in January 1972, where it was used in the airline's training program.
Since then, over 7000 Cessna Citations have been built and the fleet has amassed nearly 35 million hours in the air, making the Citation the most popular private/corporate jet range in the world.
“This milestone marking 45 years of industry leadership is really a celebration of the thousands of people through the years – customers and employees – who have made the Citation line of business jets the world leader,” said Kriya Shortt, senior vice president, Sales and Marketing.
“In terms of customer satisfaction, aircraft value and performance, precision design, production quality and lifecycle customer support, nothing comes close to what the Cessna Citation family offers the global marketplace.”
There are currently eight Citation models in production including the Citation Mustang, M2, CJ3+, CJ4, XLS+, Latitude, Sovereign+ and Citation X+. Textron Aviation also has in development the larger Longitude and Hemisphere, which will mark the company's entry into the large-cabin market.
More information on the Citation range is on the Textron Aviation website.