On a remarkably newsworthy opening day at European business aviation show Ebace, Cessna unveiled a clean-sheet, long-range design, the Citation Longitude. The airplane, which the company plans to certify by 2017, will feature the same clean-sheet fuselage cross section as the smaller Latitude, which Cessna launched last fall. The new airplane will be much larger and much more capable, however, and will boast an all-new “gently swept” wing with winglets.
Longitude’s range will be 4,000 nm with a ceiling of 45,000 feet. Maximum speed is projected at Mach .86, a very competitive value. Longitude will be able to fly nonstop from New York to Paris, from London to Dubai, or from Beijing to Moscow.
