Big Brother
First rumors about Cessna Aircraft intention to complete Citation model range with the biggest aircraft started circulating as early as four years ago when it was already understandable for everybody that program of each self-esteeming business-jet manufacturer shall include a reliable roomy long-range jet. At NBAA 2005 Convention everybody was awaiting presentation but something went wrong then. First official declarations were pronounced a year after that and in these declarations the project with preliminary denomination “Citation Large Cabin Concept (LCC)” was mentioned.

At the press-conference on the 16th October 2006 in Orlando President and Executive Director of Cessna Aircraft Jack PELTON said that Cessna Aircraft Company and Textron were studying the opportunities for expansion of their business-jet model range by including a new intercontinental aircraft with a wide passenger cabin. After clients’ and NBAA participants’ polls Cessna planned to perform estimates of a number of parameters in order to find the most appropriate variant. The Company specialists were first of all interested in requests as regards speed, range of flight and passenger cabin height as well as its interior and equipment.

At the same time they decided to finance the process as a preliminary: the Company announced that any customer who would manage to contribute a deposit of $100 thousand by the end of 2006, would be granted the right to buy the aircraft at a reduced price and get it beyond the common queue. If works on the project proceed the agreement shall be converted into a full-value commercial contract; otherwise the Company shall return the deposit with consolation premium of 6%. There was the only “but”: the buyer should have verified by his own signature that he would not act as a broker or dealer etc., but he would purchase the jet for his private use.

It had been planned to take the final decision and to announce it by the end of 2007 but evidently work with focus-groups of potential customers was dragged on and decision on the program launching was taken in January this year. The delay was not so long. In its current shape the project of a new business-jet was named pretentiously: Cessna Model 850 Citation Columbus.

It’s in the Bag
Jet designing is an interactive process, complicated and hardly understandable for wide range of people. But we shall clarify the nature of the issue at least to the minimal extent, shan’t we? The story of Citation Columbus is quite a good occasion to do that.
Project development starts from determination of basic parameters, the most important of them being paying load and flight range, and if we are talking about a business-jet – level of comfort is important, too; it is understood as the passenger cabin dimensions and its layout. These characteristics are actually market demands expressed in figures.

Leaders of Citation family, Citation Sovereign and Citation X aircrafts are meant for transportation of 8-9 passengers for the distance of 5400 and 5680 km respectively. In the new project they decided not to back out of seating capacity standards conventional for Cessna Aircraft: the Company does not intent to design huge liners but it knows its consumer audience by sights and by names. Thus interior of Citation Columbus is also meant for eight or nine passengers but they are accommodated much more comfortably due to more spacious passenger cabin.
As we remember, by now business-jets of Citation family had fuselages of two main shapes – a “narrow” and an “expanded” one. The first variant had been designed for Citation 500, and from that time no essential changes were made; only its length varied like party-liner during intermediate stage. The second fuselage type was designed at the end of the 1970-ies for business-jet Model 650 Citation III; it has become the basis for the new family. Citation XLS+, Citation Sovereign and Citation X Models are manufactured with such fuselages nowadays. Creators of Citation Columbus believed soundly (and surveys of customers’ focus-groups proved this issue to them quite clearly) that if there are eight or nine seats, passenger cabin shall be even wider, ceiling shall be higher and it is desirable to make floor even, without a “trench”. On the basis of the above the new fuselage was designed; it was the third variant; generally it is similar to the previous one; but its internal diameter is 2.1 m. Passenger cabin height with even floor was 1.86 m respectively. Let’s compare: in Citation X passenger cabin width is 1.68 m and its height is 1.73 m.

It is very interesting: a hew fuselage is designed; diameter and length are extended (dimensions and weight of all the other airframe units are increased respectively; several tons of weight are added to the airframe itself and to the quantity of fuel respectively); and gain in space for the passenger’s head is just 13 cm. We underlined this aspect on purpose, not in order to hurt aircraft designers’ pride somehow, but vice versa – in order to show how objective laws of aircraft design function, and where the easy and generally understandable desire of passengers to walk along the cabin with their cowboy hats on leads.

As Cessna Aircraft representatives state, sufficient space for seats and beds as well as working area for stewardesses etc. will be designed in passenger cabin. It is also planned to equip passenger cabin with the modern system of wireless high-speed Internet access facilities, satellite communications and entertainment options. Parameters and so to say consumer properties of Citation Columbus passenger cabin have such characteristics that now we can say that Cessna Aircraft has achieved new comfort level immanent to such aircrafts as Challenger 300, Challenger 604/605, Hawker 4000, Gulfstream G350 and G400 as well as Falcon 2000. The Company intrudes into the market segment which it used to avoid in various ways not long ago: either by price bonuses or by gain in a certain parameter the same as it came out with Citation X; nobody can come up with it so far. It is not excluded that we are now watching the next round of business-jet evolution which has fixed new comfort standard: 8-12 seats, passenger cabin width above 2 m, height above 1.8 m, even floor, full-scale kitchen, WC, baggage compartment with access from the cabin. Some designers have just come to this standard earlier and other ones preferred not to hurry till the certain moment.

The Appointed Person
As far as all jet parameters are related to each other, cabin dimensions are directly related to flight range. There is no sense to make a very expensive and big business-jet for 1000-2000 km flights. While designing Citation Columbus flight range was preset on the basis of customers’ desires: 7400 km or 4000«navigation» miles. Standard distance for business-jet meant not for single-purpose American market (coast-to-coast principle) but for flights between Europe and USA east coast, Europe and Middle East, Moscow and West Siberia. Speed characteristics are calculated for this range of flights respectively.

After supersonic Concorde aircraft has ceased flying, Citation X with its maximal cruising speed of 972 km/hour (very close to sonic speed) stays the most high-speed passenger aircraft. Many people believe passenger cabin of this aircraft is a little bit tight for 5680 km flights, but high speed compensates it because flight time is reduced. Such speed is achieved not only because of aerodynamic perfection, but first of all due to huge draft of high-capacity motors; this can be seen even in the appearance of this exotic business-jet. For Citation Columbus Pratt & Whitney PW810 motors of even higher power are envisaged (4000 kg draft if compared with 3068 kg in Citation X Model). But if Citation X maximal takeoff weight is 16.3 tons, Citation Columbus takeoff weight evidently will exceed 20 tons, although accurate data is not available yet. Taking into account the above said data motor draft does not look record and it proves to be quite sufficient for flight with maximal cruising speed of 900 km/hour. It is less than the champion’s data but it is quite in the spirit of modern tendencies because 900 km/hour – it is approximately 0.8 of sonic speed (it is a very important value in aerodynamic calculations). These requirements are included into designs of all modern business-jets, while previous generation of aircrafts developed in 1960-1970-ies were meant for 0.7-0.75 of sonic speed.

СAircraft flies on its wing; it is its main working organ, we may say. If we determined cabin dimensions and preset range and speed, it means we more or less understand how much it will weigh and what kind of wing shall be designed in order to enable still hypothetical future aircraft take off and fly the required range with certain speed. Citation Columbus wing will be designed in the spirit of the most modern tendencies; it will be arrow-shaped, thin, and high-speed, with highly developed takeoff and landing mechanization.

But a share of sound conservatism is present there, too. First of all, contrary to many modern manufacturers who apply composite materials widely, Citation Columbus will be made pursuant to classical technologies mainly out of metal. Evidently it is a correct step. Cessna Aircraft does not want to repeat the experience of Raytheon, which had perfected its advanced most modern Hawker 4000 all made of composite materials for ten years.

Approach to aircraft control system is very interesting, too. Mechanical control is classics of the genre; it is enhanced with hydraulics and connected with robot pilot system. At the other pole there are few aircraft with electric remote control systems. Nowadays those are Falcon 7X and Airbus Corporate Jet with control performed through computer, and commands to executive devices are sent in the shape of electric signals. Thus, the name of this technology is fly-by-wire. Citation Columbus will be equipped with combined system using both mechanical wires and Fly-by-Wire technology. It is quite a sensible approach from the customer’s point of view, because customer desires to get his business-jet for reasonable price, and for the Company because it aspires to make reserve for far prospective, not only for the nearest ten years, when the aircraft with too classical and conservative features will become obsolete not due to life service.
Well, if technical details have already made you tired let us get down to the financial issue closer and dearer for us. Alas, here clarity is scarce. Cessna Aircraft is not ready yet to declare all the figures. Only catalog price of Citation Columbus was declared; in 2008 it makes $26,995 mln. – $27 mln. without tricks. Operational expenses data has been in the state of collection. Would you like to have it immediately? It needs to be calculated and estimated.

But as usual managers of the Company declare as a temptation that Citation Columbus will be unsurpassed cheap and efficient in operation and in addition it has the longest passenger cabin in its class. So to say consumers will get more of the aircraft for the same money. «Corporate flight common departments in large companies having demand for high-speed, economical and long-range jets» are mentioned as the main consumers’ group.

We do not need to get used to the fact that manufacturing companies pass over in silence the issues of private ownership as the most confidential market sector for large business-jet sales. But until 2014 when in accordance with plans Citation Columbus supply shall start, we still have some time. Then we will see how optimistic desires of companies’ representatives have been; they invariably wish success to the new aircraft in the Russian market. Citation Columbus is the aircraft of typically Russian size.

Detailed information about other Cessna aircraft can be found in the Jet 2008 Catalogue. You can order the catalogue in web-site: www.jetcatalogue.ru

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