Japan orders Citation Longitude for calibration duties
The Japanese Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB) has ordered a Cessna Citation Longitude.
The Longitude will be used for flight validation and inspection operations. Cessna says that the aircraft will be delivered in 2021.
“From its early design stages, the clean-sheet design of the Citation Longitude gave us the flexibility to incorporate a wide-range of special missions capabilities into the platform,” said Bob Gibbs, vice president, defence & special missions sales, Cessna. “We’re pleased to be working with long-time customer JCAB as it expands its mission profile with the addition of the Citation Longitude. The enhanced performance, large cabin and advanced capabilities of the aircraft give JCAB a new level of efficiency and productivity in maintaining the operational integrity of its airports and airways.”
The Longitude will be fitted out by Cessna for its new mission, with the newly designed Norwegian Special Mission UNIFIS 3000-G2 System.
Flight inspection missions are carried out by every country and are crucial to the safe operation of aircraft at airports.
The missions validate ILS (Instrument Landing System) approaches to runways, Ground-Based Augmentation Systems (GBAS) and many other systems that aircraft rely on when using an airport.
The JCAB currently operates a small fleet of five Citation CJ4s for its flight-calibration missions.
Elsewhere in Asia, China operates a fleet of Cessna Citation business jets outfitted in flight-calibration roles.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China’s (CAAC) CFIC (China Flight Inspection Center) unit operates a fleet of 16 Citation business jets in flight-inspection roles. The fleet is predominantly comprised of Citation XLS/XLS+, but also includes three Citation Sovereigns and a single Citation X. The fleet is complemented by a solitary Gulfstream G450.
Earlier in 2019, CFIC placed a follow-on order with Cessna for the delivery of eight further Citation XLS+s. All aircraft are expected to be delivered before the end of 2021.
At the Corporate Jet Investor Miami Conference in November, Cessna’s senior VP sales and marketing Rob Scholl told attendees that for “Evey new airport that opens in China, a Cessna Citation is the first airplane to land at the airport.”
