For me one of the most beautiful aircraft to fly is the Cessna Citation X. It’s a transonic aerodynamic work of art. With its wings swept at 37 degrees, only one other civilian aircraft has wings of a greater sweepback, that’s the Boeing 747 at 37.5 degrees. When Cessna launched the Citation X at the 1990 NBAA conference, like the first generation of Citation jets, they were capitalizing on a market niche- only this time instead of a slower jet, they were going for one of the fastest civilian jets short of the Concorde on the premise that corporate customers had jets to save time and a faster bizjet amounted to even greater time savings with a Mach 0.92 cruise speed. Cessna once again retained the brilliant mind of the NASA aerodynamicist Richard Whitcomb as a consultant on the Citation X design and as the aircraft was being designed at the same time as Boeing 777, Boeing engineers and aerodynamicists assisted Cessna’s team with the supercritical wing design. But crucial to the Citation X design was to have the same operating costs as competitors that were 10-15% slower. With the work on the Citation III/VI/VII as a foundation, Cessna delivered on its promises with the Citation X which won them the 1996 Collier Trophy for the first civilian aircraft to cruise at Mach 0.92. One testament to the Citation X’s speed, during it’s flight test program, Cessna had to use Northrop T-38 Talons as chase aircraft! #avgeek #aviation #aircraft #planeporn #KDAL #DAL #DallasLoveField #airport #planespotting #instaplane #instagramaviation #Avgeekery #Cessna #Citation #CitationX #N15TT #splendid_transport #instaaviation #aviationlovers #aviationphotography #flight #AvgeekSchoolofKnowledge #AvGeek_SchoolofKnowledge (at Dallas Love Field)
