Photo:  Cessna Aircraft

Milt Sills and J. L. LeSueur strapped into the first Cessna Citation at Wichita Mid-Continent Airport on September 15, 1969, took it on a  one hour 45 minute first flight and, in the process, helped change the course of Cessna's future for the next four decades. Learjet already had seized a commanding in the light jet market with its 440 KTAS, 41,000 ft Model 23, 24 and 25 hot rods, so Cessna knew it had to counter with a challenger having strong credentials.

Rather than meeting Learjet head-on, Cessna decided to do an end run, introducing the $695,000 Cessna Citation 500, a six passenger airplane with a comfortable cabin, modest climb and cruise performance, docile handling and good fuel efficiency. In short, it was a turboprop with turbofan engines.

Citation had a NACA 23000-series wing adapted from Cessna's 421 Golden Eagle, endowing it with the slow speed characteristics of a piston twin. Pratt & Whitney Canada supplied 2,200 lb thrust JT15D-1 turbofans having a 3:1 bypass ratio, low noise characteristics and low altitude fuel efficiency far superior to the 2,900 lb thrust pure jet GE CJ610 engines of the Learjet. The Citation's modest thrust and big wing gave it the tamest OEI takeoff characteristics of any twin-engine business jet in production, by wide margins.

When initial deliveries began in January 1972, operators found that Cessna Citation would climb about as fast as a King Air 100 and it cruised as fast as 340 KTAS on cool days in the low thirties. Cessna advertized a 349 KTAS top speed, but that was a pipe dream. Early production aircraft had workman-level airframe, cabins and cockpit quality, having more in common with Cessna's twin piston engine aircraft than genuine jets. Early Citations had block cruise speeds not much faster than turboprops -- and they burned more fuel.

But, they were quiet, comfortable, easy to fly and had no propellers. In short, they provided jet-level board room bragging rights, though not jet-level speeds.

"Slo-tation" jokes proliferated during the next few years. But many old prop pilots found them easy to fly than Learjets and they felt more confident in their cockpits. They told their owners they were safer in Citations than other light jets. In reality, the safety factor was as much as comfort factor for prop piliots because it was easy to earn a type rating in the Citation and it instantly made low-time pilots feel comfortable, especially ones making the transition to their first jets. (In the late 1970s, I taught in Citation 500 / I aircraft for nearly three years and I can tell you that it was a whole lot less challenging for a CFI than teaching in a Learjet.)

Cessna sold 350 aircraft in the first five years, plowing back plenty of profits into R & D to develop better models. In 1974, a higher alttiude version was introduced with improved pressurization and more thrust in cruise. In 1977, the Citation I made its debut, with improved avionics and an optional single-pilot configuration.

Citation I spawned Citation II in 1978, a stretched version having room for eight passengers, more range and 350+ KTAS cruise speeds. It was now apparent that Cessna was going to permanently take the lead from all comers in the light jet market, including Learjet.

Cessna became the master of iteration in the light jet industry. Citation II, in turn, formed the basis for the S-II, a derivation with a modified wing to reduce high-speed drag and four-section flaps to reduce takeoff and landing speeds. S-II was stretched and fitted with more powerful engines to become Citation V, later leading to Ultra, Encore and Encore+.

Cessna's success with its narrow-body Citations gave it the resources to develop mid-size jets, starting with Citation III in 1982 and culminating with the Mach .92 Citation X in 1996, chairman Russ Meyer's revenge on all who defamed the Citation as a "Near Jet" not a "real jet".



Photo:  Cessna Aircraft

While Citation X was a technological masterpiece, it was a massively expensive undertaking and it achieved limited success in the marketplace. Mid-jet customers thought it had too small a cabin for its six-hour range.

Undeterred, Cessna went on to develop many other models, including the highly successful Excel, nicknamed the Fat Five because it combined the Citation III fuselage with a Citation V wing. It offered mid-size cabin comfort with light jet runway performance. Cessna took the concept to the next level with Sovereign in 2004, essentially a Citation X with a huge straight wing that has trans-continental US range jet, light jet runway requirements and .78 Mach cruise speeds.

Citation 500-family aircraft now are being replaced by the CJ-family, a thoroughly updated, faster, more fuel efficient and more capable branch of the family.

All these models, though, have Fanjet 500 family DNA and that's something of which Milt Sills and J. L. LeSueur can be proud. Forty years ago, they made the first flight of an airplane that formed the basis of a business jet line that's sold better than any other in history. That's an impressive legacy for both the pilots and the original airplane.