Cessna Citation X (1:40)

Cessna Citation X (1:40)

The Cessna Citation X (as in the Roman numeral, not the letter) is a medium-sized business jet aircraft and it is the fastest business jet and fastest currently flying civilian airplane in the world, traveling up to Mach 0.92 (605 mph). An obvious characteristic of the Citation X is its highly swept wing with a supercritical airfoil, used in order to increase the critical Mach number and therefore the top speed. The Citation X has 37 degrees of sweepback at the quarter chord, more than any other business jet and, among civil aircraft, second only to the Boeing 747's 37.5 degrees. The horizontal and vertical stabilizers are also highly swept and are arranged in a T-tail configuration. The Citation X is powered by two Rolls-Royce turbofan engines and is built by the Cessna Aircraft Company in Wichita, Kansas.<
The design objectives behind the Citation X included transcontinental USA and trans-Atlantic range in a mid size package that cruises faster than any other business jet available. This high speed cruise capability, which Cessna says is 105 to 210km/h (55 to 113kt) faster than other mid size corporate jet, means the X can save up to one hour's flight time on transcontinental US flights, flying from Los Angeles to New York with normal wind conditions in 4 hours 10 minutes. Because of its ability to cruise at high speed at high altitudes, Cessna also says the Citation X will consume less fuel than current jets on such a transcontinental flight. Other design features of the Citation X include the fuselage cross section of the Citation III, VI and VII but with more efficient use of internal space that allows greater head and shoulder room, an area ruled, waisted rear fuselage, trailing link main undercarriage units and a modern Honeywell Primus 2000 EFIS avionics suite with five colour CRT displays.

On September 10 1997, a Citation X was the 2500th Citation to be delivered was handed over. The USA's National Aeronautics Association awarded its prestigious Collier Trophy to the Citation X design team in February 1997.