Cessna took the first production version of its latest Citation, the M2, to the skies from the company’s facility in Independence, Kansas, where the twinjet will be produced alongside the Citation Mustang and Cessna’s single-engine products. Production test pilots Terry Martindale and Corey Eckhart flew the M2 up to 17,500 feet, testing the jet for nearly two hours.
The M2 features Cessna’s Intrinzic flight deck with Garmin’s latest touchscreen avionics suite, the G3000. “This is the first aircraft equipped with the Garmin G3000 avionics, and the system goes beyond what people might be expecting in terms of familiarity, versatility, situational awareness and ease of use,” said Martindale. “You can sense that pilots designed the cockpit. Everything is where you need it to be.”
With a successful flight in the books, Cessna expects to gain certification for the M2, which has a starting price of $4,395 million, this fall. The M2 is a step up from Cessna’s entry-level jet, the Citation Mustang. The airplane is expected to be certified for single-pilot operations, in which case the M2 can accommodate up to seven passengers. By trading one passenger for fuel, Cessna claims a range for the M2 of around 1,300 nm.
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