Citation Jets

The Cessna Aircraft Company was founded in 1927 by Clyde Cessna and Victor Roos. Since then, Cessna has come a long way, producing over 190,000 aircraft to date, including nearly 6,000 Citation jets - about thirty percent of all private jet aircraft in the world. With the exception of the Citation Mustang - an entry-level VLJ (Very Light Jet) introduced in 2006 - most Citations reside in the midsize class range.

Due to the proliferation of different families within the Citation moniker, its lineage has become increasingly intricate. For instance, the Citation 500 series designation identifies a whole family of jets that include the Citation I, I/SP and II. The 550 similarly evolved into the high performance Citation S/II - was re-engined, given new landing gear and avionics, and renamed the Bravo, while still bearing the 550 designation. The Citation 560 series aircraft was launched in 1996 and includes the Citation V, V Ultra, Encore, Encore+ and Excel - now called the 560XL and eventually morphing into the Citation XLS, XLS+ and Sovereign.

Thankfully, Cessna finally broke the tradition of numbering their aircraft in 1993, phasing out their light jets with what was essentially considered an all-new design, the CitationJet (i.e. the CJ, CJ1, CJ1+, CJ2, CJ2+, CJ3 and CJ4). First announced in 1990, the Citation X marked Cessna's first foray into the super-midsize market and is currently the fastest and highest flying civilian aircraft in the world.

Headquartered in Wichita, Kansas, Cessna is currently a subsidiary of Textron.