Citation Latitude is a new light business jet designed by Cessna. It is a low wing aircraft with retractable tricycle landing gear and a cruciform tail. Cessna unveiled the new aircraft at the National Business Aviation Association convention in October 2011. The aircraft is currently in its development phase. It is expected to be ready for first flight in 2014 and will be in service by 2015, subject to the Federal Aviation Academy (FAA) certification. The aircraft is positioned between Citation XLS+ and Citation Sovereign business jets and will cost approximately $14.9m.
Design and main features of the Citation Latitude
Citation Latitude carries a schematic design. It is built of aluminium alloys, steel and other materials. It accommodates two pilots and six to nine passengers. A couch provided inside the cabin adds an option to accommodate a few extra passengers. The interiors are designed to ensure free and comfortable movement of passengers inside the aircraft.
The aircraft's wings are slightly angled at the tips, so as to reduce aerodynamic drag and provide smooth approach and landing. High internal volumes of the wings provide space for integral fuel tanks.
Three sections of electrically driven aluminium fowler flaps and five sections of hydraulically driven spoilers on each wing are utilised for lift, drag and roll control of the aircraft.
Overall length of the aircraft is 18.97m. Its height and width are 6.38m and 22.05m respectively. The cabin's length, width and height are 8.38m, 1.95m and 1.83m respectively.
Cockpit and avionics aboard Cessna's aircraft
Citation Latitude's cockpit is anchored by a Garmin G5000 system. It features one of the advanced pilot vehicle interfaces with multidisplay touch screen vehicle management system control unit.
G5000 has three 14-inch LCD principal and multifunction displays and four touch-screen control panels. An integrated Flight Director / Autopilot and Electronic Flight Instrument System (EFIS) are also included. The standard features of the new system constitute a touch-screen interface between the pilot and the vehicle, traffic collision avoidance system (TCAS) II, synthetic vision technology and electronic charts. Synthetic vision technology enabled Garmin SVT pilot control interface provides the crew a total hypothetical three-dimensional visual of runways, terrain, traffic and obstacles. The system also features a dual flight management system with WAAS LPV (wide area augmentation system with localiser performance with vertical guidance) and RNP (required navigation performance). It has solid-state weather radar with turbulence detection and vertical scan capability, plus an integrated terrain awareness and warning system (TAWS).
The four touch screen control panels are designed to offer compact view of aircraft function icons, similar to those in a smart phone.
Fuselage on the new light business jet
Latitude's fuselage is made up of aluminium and is 0.36m shorter than the Citation Sovereign aircraft. It is a constant circular cross section attached to wings without any cuts of spar.
The cabin's door is at the front left of the fuselage. An emergency exit is located in the lavatory on right side of the fuselage. The avionics compartment is located on the nose end of the fuselage.
A nose wheel steering accumulator, landing gear pneumatic blow-down bottle and emergency braking bottle are also integrated in the front compartment.
Engine Specifications and performance of Cessna's Citation Latitude
The aircraft is equipped with two Pratt & Whitney PW306D engines. The engine has a twin spool design with damage resistant wide chord fan. One centrifugal and four axial compressors are fixed beside the fans to achieve high efficiency and low emission.
It is a full authority digital engine control (FADEC) turbo fan engine which decreases the workload of pilots. The engine's power helps the aircraft to take-off from runways as small as 1,200m.
The maximum cruise speed of the aircraft is 819km/h and the maximum range is 4,260km. Take-off distance is 1,189m and maximum operating altitude is 13,716m.
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