Textron Aviation has received FAA approval for a series of enhancements to the Citation Latitude’s Garmin G5000 avionics suite that will provide for greater situational awareness and lower approach minima, the company announced today. Certified earlier this month, the advanced features include Garmin’s synthetic vision guidance system (SVGS) on the primary flight displays, GDL 60 Datalink, and a taxiway routing feature.
Certification of the features, which were announced at EBACE 2024, followed more than 240 flight test hours and are expected to enter service on new-production aircraft later this year. Textron Aviation anticipates similar approval on the super-midsize Citation Longitude—which is also equipped with the G5000—in 2026.
“The newly certified enhancements in the Latitude’s Garmin G5000 suite reinforce our continued investment in the Citation product line and our dedication to delivering the latest innovations that support the evolving needs of customers around the world,” said Chris Hearne, senior v-p of engineering and programs. “The enhancements also offer improved situational awareness for pilots by increasing topographical clarity, sharpening water and terrain boundaries, improving obstacle and powerlines display, and enhancing runway and airport sign depictions.”
SVGS couples with synthetic vision technology (SVT) to support approach minima down to 150 feet, providing a continuous, geospatially correct depiction of the outside topography, including obstacles, augmented by the display of the runway.
In addition, the enhancements provide a 3D view of the SafeTaxi airport environment, as well as 3D displays of building footprints, including hangars, terminals, and towers, taxiways, aprons, signs, and other markings. Introducing multiple viewpoints, the SVT integrates with a new taxiway routing feature to give better awareness during ground operations, which is especially helpful at large, unfamiliar, and complex airports during low visibility.
Other enhancements include GDL 60 Datalink, which facilitates use of high-bandwidth data and connectivity options such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and LTE networks. GDL 60 further enables automatic wireless database downloads over network connections when the aircraft is powered off.
Standard ADS-B In capabilities provide for enhanced traffic assistance during approaches, and customers have the option of adding a runway overrun awareness and alerting system (ROAAS) to help guard against potential overruns.