The Cessna Citation Columbus was a

business jet A business jet, private jet, or bizjet is a jet aircraft designed for transporting small groups of people, typically business executives and high-ranking coworker, associates. Business jets are generally designed for faster air travel and more ...

project by

Cessna Cessna () is an American brand of general aviation aircraft owned by Textron Aviation since 2014, headquartered in Wichita, Kansas. Originally, it was a brand of the Cessna Aircraft Company, an American general aviation aircraft manufactu ...

, part of the

Cessna Citation family The Cessna Citation is a family of business jets manufactured by Cessna that entered service in 1972. In the fifty years following the type's first flight in 1969, more than 7,500 Citations were delivered, forming the largest business jet flee ...

The Model 850 was launched in February 2008 and cancelled in July 2009. It would have been the largest model of the family at the time. Powered by 8,830 lbf (39.3 kN) PW810 turbofans and a range, the $27 million aircraft had a 709 sq ft (66 m²), 30° swept wing.

Development

Cessna began research on the largest Citation in 2002 with market studies, surveys, concept testing, focus groups and customer advisory boards. A

mockup In manufacturing and design, a mockup, or mock-up, is a scale or full-size model of a design or device, used for teaching, demonstration, design evaluation, promotion, and other purposes. A mockup may be a ''prototype'' if it provides at lea ...

of the large cabin concept was unveiled on October 17, 2006, at the

National Business Aviation Association The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) is a professional association and lobbying group for private business aviation. Overview NBAA is set up as a 501(c)(6) non-profit entity. NBAA organizes conferences and seminars. Edward M. ...

convention Cessna formally announced the aircraft on February 6, 2008 ; FAA certification was planned by the end of 2013, with deliveries beginning in 2014. The Columbus had a target range of with 8 passengers. The cockpit would have featured a

synthetic vision system A synthetic vision system (SVS) is a computer-mediated reality system for aerial vehicles, that uses 3D to provide pilots with clear and intuitive means of understanding their flying environment. Functionality Synthetic vision provides situat ...

autothrottle An autothrottle (automatic throttle; also known as autothrust, A/T, or A/THR) is a system that allows a pilot to control the power setting of an aircraft's engines by specifying a desired flight characteristic, rather than manually controlling t ...

s, optional

head-up display A head-up display, or heads-up display, also known as a HUD () or head-up guidance system (HGS), is any transparent display that presents data without requiring users to look away from their usual viewpoints. The origin of the name stems from a ...

and Collins' MultiScan

weather radar A weather radar, also called weather surveillance radar (WSR) and Doppler weather radar, is a type of radar used to locate precipitation (meteorology), precipitation, calculate its motion, and estimate its type (rain, snow, hail etc.). Modern w ...

with optional windshear prediction. Cessna was going to invest $780 million into the development including a new plant, major suppliers were

Pratt & Whitney Canada Pratt & Whitney Canada (PWC or P&WC) is a Canada-based aircraft engine manufacturer. PWC's headquarters are in Longueuil, Quebec, south of Montreal. It is a division of the larger US-based Pratt & Whitney (P&W), itself a business unit of RTX ...

for the engines;

Rockwell Collins Rockwell Collins, Inc. was a multinational corporation headquartered in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, providing avionics and information technology systems and services to government agencies and aircraft manufacturers. It was formed when the Collins Radi ...

for the avionics;

Vought Aircraft Industries Vought was the name of several related American aerospace firms. These have included, in the past, Lewis and Vought Corporation, Chance Vought, Vought-Sikorsky, LTV Aerospace (part of Ling-Temco-Vought), Vought Aircraft Companies, and Vought ...

for the wing;

Spirit AeroSystems Spirit AeroSystems Holdings, Inc. is an American Manufacturing, manufacturer of aerostructures for commercial airplanes, headquartered in Wichita, Kansas. The company produces fuselage sections for Boeing's Boeing 737, 737 and Boeing 787 Dreaml ...

for the fuselage and Spirit AeroSystems Europe Ltd. for the empennage;

Parker Hannifin Parker-Hannifin Corporation, originally Parker Appliance Company, usually referred to as just Parker, is an American corporation specializing in motion and control technologies. Its corporate headquarters are in Mayfield Heights, Ohio, in Greater ...

for the powered

flight control system A conventional fixed-wing aircraft flight control system (AFCS) consists of flight control surfaces, the respective cockpit controls, connecting linkages, and the necessary operating mechanisms to control an aircraft's direction in flight. ...

;

Goodrich Corporation The Goodrich Corporation, formerly the B.F. Goodrich Company, was an American manufacturing company based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Founded in Akron, Ohio in 1870 as Goodrich, Tew & Co. by Benjamin Goodrich, Dr. Benjamin Franklin Go ...

for the

landing gear Landing gear is the undercarriage of an aircraft or spacecraft that is used for taxiing, takeoff or landing. For aircraft, it is generally needed for all three of these. It was also formerly called ''alighting gear'' by some manufacturers, s ...

. On April 29, 2009

announced that it was suspending the Citation Columbus program, but indicated at that time that the program might be restarted once economic conditions improved. The company also indicated that it would lay off 1,600 workers, including up to 700 workers from the Columbus program. On July 8, 2009, Cessna reported the cancellation of the program in documents filed with the

Securities and Exchange Commission The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street crash of 1929. Its primary purpose is to enforce laws against market m ...

(SEC). The company said "Upon additional analysis of the business jet market related to this product offering, we decided to formally cancel further development of the Citation Columbus". Cessna's parent company,

Textron Textron Inc. is an American industrial Conglomerate (company), conglomerate based in Providence, Rhode Island. Textron's subsidiaries include Arctic Cat, Bell Textron, Kautex, Textron Aviation (which itself includes the Beechcraft and Cessna b ...

will write-off

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

43 million as a results of the cancellation. The SEC-filed documents indicate that Cessna spent approximately US$50 million on tooling, facilities and other costs for the project. Most of these costs are unrecoverable and cannot be used for other projects. Pratt & Whitney Canada immediately stopped the PW810 engine program, but continued the PW800 series. On July 11, 2009, Cessna announced that it would return US$10M to the City of Wichita and Sedgwick County. The money was received as an economic incentive for developing the aircraft in Wichita and was part of $70M in cash assistance and tax breaks received from those two governments.

Specifications

References

External links

Cessna Citation Columbus home page archives
on

Archive.org The Internet Archive is an American non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including websites, software applic ...

{{Cessna Citation Columbus Twinjets Low-wing aircraft Abandoned civil aircraft projects of the United States Columbus Aircraft with retractable tricycle landing gear 2000s United States business aircraft

Development

Specifications

See also

References

External links