Cessna Citation Excel

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The Cessna Citation Excel, Model 560XL, is a turbofan-powered small-to-medium sized business jet built by the Cessna Aircraft Company in Wichita, Kansas. The Citation brand of business jets encompasses six distinct "families" of aircraft, and the Excel was the basis for one of these families. This family includes the Excel, the Citation XLS, the Citation XLS+ and the Citation Sovereign.

Contents 1 Excel development 2 Variants 2.1 Citation XLS 2.2 Citation XLS+ 2.3 Citation Sovereign 3 Specifications (Citation Sovereign) 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Excel development

With the success and popularity of Cessna's high-end Citation X, the manufacturer saw a market potential for utilizing the X's features in an aircraft aimed at the traditional Citation market, where it chiefly competes with twin turboprop aircraft. Rather than being a direct variant of another Citation airframe, the Excel was a combination of technologies and designs. To produce the Excel, Cessna took the X's wide, stand-up cabin fuselage, shortened it by about 21 feet and mated it with an unswept wing utilizing a supercritical airfoil (based on the Citation V Ultra's wing} and a Citation V's tail. To power the aircraft, Cessna chose the a new Pratt & Whitney Canada turbofan, the PW545A. As a result, the Excel has the roomiest cabin in its class of light corporate jets and can seat up to 10 passengers (in high-density configuration; typically the number is six to eight in a corporate configuration), while being flown by a crew of two.^[1]

The project was originally announced at the annual NBAA convention in October, 1994, and the prototype aircraft took off on its first flight on February 29, 1996. By the time FAA certification was in hand two years later, in April 1998, Cessna had over 200 orders for the aircraft on the books. By the time the 100th Excel was delivered in August 2000, the Wichita production line was producing an aircraft every three days.^[1] By the time the aircraft was superseded by the Citation XLS, a total of 308 had been built.^[2] The Excel has had an exceptional safety record, with only 5 accidents on record, none of which involved fatalities.^[3]

[edit] Variants

[edit] Citation XLS

The Citation XLS was the first "makeover" that the Excel received. Besides a glass cockpit based on the Honeywell Primus 1000 EFIS avionics suite, the XLS featured the upgraded PW545B engines with increased performance.^[4]

[edit] Citation XLS+

Cessna upgraded the aircraft again to the Citation XLS+, or simply "Plus" configuration, with the inclusion of FADEC engine controls and improved PW545C engines.^[5]

[edit] Citation Sovereign

In the late 1990s, Cessna saw the need for a high-performance jet midway between the Excel/XLS size and the Citation X. Initially, they looked at a clean-sheet design approach, but decided in the end to stretch the Excel's fuselage by almost five feet, and mate it with a new wing. The result is the Model 680 Citation Sovereign, powered by two Pratt & Whitney Canada PW306C turbofan engines with FADEC controls. With a typical cabin configuration, the Sovereign will seat eight passengers, with a maximum high-density capacity of 12, in addition to the crew of two.

First flight of the Sovereign took place in February, 2002, with FAA certification awarded in June, 2004. Customer deliveries began later that fall.^[6][7]

[edit] Specifications (Citation Sovereign)

General characteristics

• Crew: 2
• Capacity: 8-12 passengers
• Length: 63.6 ft (19.37 m)
• Wingspan: 63.2 ft (19.24 m)
• Height: 20.4 ft (6.2 m)
• Empty weight: 17,700 lb (8,029 kg)
• Max takeoff weight: 30,550 lb (13,608 kg)
• Powerplant: 2× Pratt & Whitney Canada PW306C turbofans, 5686 lbs (2580 kg) each

Performance

• Maximum speed: 458 knots (848 km/h)
• Range: 2,603 nautical miles (4,821 km)
• Service ceiling: 47,000 ft (15,517 m)
• Rate of climb: 924 ft/min (282 m/min)

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Cessna Citation home page
• Cessna's Excel performance and specifications page archived at archive.org
• Cessna Citation X web site
• Cessna Citation Sovereign web site