PROVIDENCE – Textron Inc.’s Cessna unit, boosting research spending to prepare for a recovery in the corporate-aircraft market, is stretching and upgrading its Citation X model, the world’s fastest business jet.
The new Citation Ten is scheduled to be in the air by late 2011 and delivered to the first customer in 2013, Wichita, Kan.-based Cessna said Monday in a statement. The jet is 15 inches longer and will fly farther and carry more weight than the $22 million, eight-seat Citation X.
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Cessna has cut more than half of its work force since 2008 as demand slumped because of the recession, and it shelved development of the Columbus jet. The company is focusing on new models and upgrades to be ready once sales recover, Textron CEO Scott Donnelly said in a July interview.
The Citation Ten has improved Rolls-Royce Plc engines, a new cabin-management system for better entertainment and connectivity, and a new cockpit avionics system built by Garmin Ltd. instead of Honeywell International Inc., said Doug Oliver, a Cessna spokesman.
Garmin’s G5000 avionics system, which will debut on the Citation Ten, “is advanced, has growth capabilities and is what came out on top in our evaluation,” Oliver said.
Honeywell will offer upgrades to current Citation X operators to provide weather information and electronic charts, said Bill Reavis, a spokesman for the Morris Township, N.J.-based company. Honeywell made a strategic decision to focus on large-cabin and longer-range classes of aircraft rather than the Citation X, he said.
“We see the 300 units that are out there as a bigger market going forward and a bigger economic opportunity than the whole new Citation Ten,” Reavis said.
Textron fell 25 cents to $21.26 Monday in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have risen 13 percent this year.
