Search Results for: Citation X

Russell Meyer, Jr., current chairman emeritus and past chairman and CEO of Cessna, which he led from 1975 to 2003, will be inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame. Russ Meyer is largely credited with promoting product liability legislation in 1994, which became known as the General Aviation Revitalization Act. Following passage of that […]

Airframe by Cessna. Engines from Pratt & Whitney. Avionics by Collins. In a world where we all wonder what became of the blue chip companies, these three names are still rock-solid leaders in business aviation. So it is only natural that they would team up to make the Citation XLS, the bestselling business jet for […]

Executive bonuses are at the top of the news’ hit list. And Cessna’s parent company, Textron, has revealed through filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that its CEO Lewis Campbell saw his performance bonus steeply diminish last year. The overall downgrade amounted to a bottom-line pay cut of 16 percent-down to $9.8 million […]

Nature is divergent. Darwin in the Galapagos encountered an outpouring of species, no two precisely alike. Aeronautical engineering seems to go the other way. All the species in a given niche eventually resemble one another. It practically takes a specialist to distinguish one business jet from the next. It was not always so. The early […]

“Okay, push her forward. That’s it, a little more forward pressure.” I do as instructed. The runway appears to be coming up at an alarming rate, filling the windshield inches from my eyes. Since this is a takeoff, shouldn’t the runway be disappearing? I feel as if I’m nosing her over onto the frantically oscillating […]

All-new design airplanes from startup companies are often called “paper airplanes” because the company has no track record of producing any kind of airplane. So when you design a paper airplane, you should shoot for the moon, and Stratos, a new would-be jet maker in Bend, Oregon, has with its Model 714 personal jet. For […]

In March Gulfstream announced development of a new model, the 650, the first clean sheet Gulfstream business jet since the G-II laid the foundation for the most successful line of large cabin business jets in the 1960s. The 650 is a response to Gulfstream customers who want more cabin space, longer range and more cruise […]

Never have I regretted spending money on airplanes. The costs for upgrades and maintenance may have been prodigious, but they always felt good. The airplane was either improved or restored. I never questioned these investments. Same for hangar, insurance and fuel. I wanted the airplane protected indoors, I wanted to protect the people flying in […]

It’s hot on the ramp. The sun, blocked earlier by a thin overcast, now has an unobstructed view and it’s doing its thing with a good deal of enthusiasm. There’s a slight breeze and that helps, but the baggage handlers in my group are sweltering as we form a “bucket brigade” to unload bags from […]

Insurance companies and safety experts-self appointed and otherwise-are constantly worrying that owner-flown jets…particularly the coming crop of new light jets, can be flown at 41,000 feet by a single pilot who may not be very experienced. What’s up with that? What’s so special about 41,000 feet? The answer is that FL 410 is the traditional […]