Textron Flies Second Cessna Citation Longitude

The second Cessna Citation Longitude, registered as N701GL, has joined the flight-test program and successfully completed its first flight on Saturday afternoon from Wichita Beech Field, Textron Aviation announced today. This comes just one month after the first Longitude prototype made its maiden flight.

N701GL was piloted by Textron Aviation test pilots Scott Foster and Peter Fisher on its initial 90-minute flight, reaching all of its performance targets, the company said. This airplane will be used for systems testing, while further expanding the performance envelope. In all, five Longitudes will be used in flight testing, in addition to several ground-test articles and more than 40 additional test articles for various subsystems.

“In the 12 months since we announced the Citation Longitude, our team has been right on target in meeting the program milestones, further validating our industry-leading development process,” said Textron Aviation president and CEO Scott Ernest. “We are coming off of a successful NBAA where we announced increased performance numbers and debuted the prototype aircraft less than a month after first flight. The team remains focused, and we are charging into 2017 with great momentum on the program.”

FAA certification and entry into service is expected by the end of next year.