Business Aviation

The Cessna Citation is a marketing name used by Cessna for its line of business jets. Rather than one particular model of aircraft, the name applies to several "families" of turbofan-powered aircraft that have been produced over the years. Within each of the six distinct families, aircraft design improvements, market pressures and re-branding efforts have resulted in a number of variants, so that the Citation lineage has become quite complex. Military variants include the T-47 and UC-35 series aircraft.

The Cessna Citation III was the first of the Model 650 series of Citation jets, which are mid-sized, high-performance business jets. The Citation III led to the later development of the Citation VI and Citation VII. The 650 series was the second of six distinct "families" of jets marketed by Cessna Aircraft Company under its Cessna Citation brand.

Instead of the Citation IV, Cessna focused their attention on developing two other versions of the III simultaneously. The first of these, the Citation VI, was intended to be an economy version of the III, with a basic, standardized avionics package and a generic cabin interior, without the option of custom interiors that were designed for each customer as was the practice with the III. The first flight of the VI took place in 1991, but the market didn't respond well. Only 39 aircraft were built before the model was discontinued in May 1995.