Grand 560XL Citation

摘要

TEXTRON RECORDED a 'grand' milestone in its Cessna 560XL Citation midsize business jet programme when it handed over the 1,000th airframe. The manufacturer announced on March 31 that the aircraft, a Citation XLS+, was delivered to a customer in the northeastern United States.The business jet will be managed and operated by Part 135 operator Custom Jet Partners, which flies from Palm Beach International in Florida and Westchester County in New York.The 560XL was announced in 1994 and first flew on February 29,1996. Production has encompassed three generations of the same basic airframe, the Citations Excel,XLS and XLS+, of which 308, 330 and (up to the 1,000th) 362 have been built. Since receiving Federal Aviation Administration type certification in April 1998 the in-service fleet has accumulated more than five million flight hours and, according to Lannie O'Bannion,Textron Aviation's senior vice-president of global sales and flight operations, one of the aircraft takes off or lands every two minutes.