Textron Aviation’s Citation Ascend business jet and Beechcraft Denali turboprop programs are progressing toward certification in 2025, the company says.
Two Citation Ascend flight-test aircraft, including Prototype (Proto) and P1, have amassed more than 200 flights and nearly 600 flight hours. Delivery is on track for 2025, company officials said during a briefing during NBAA-BACE here. The company announced the Ascend program in May 2023 at the European Business Aviation Association Conference and Exhibition (EBACE).
Three Beechcraft Denali aircraft are undergoing certification flight testing, “and they’re really busy at this point,” Textron Aviation President and CEO Ron Draper said during a briefing at the show on Oct. 22. “We’ve started cert-flying on the airplane. We’re really entering the last phase of this.”
The three aircraft in the flight-test program have flown more than 1,000 flights and amassed 2,300 flight hours, Draper said. “We’re expecting this airplane to certify as well next year,” he added.
Textron Aviation has a reputation of designing, certifying and building aircraft, Draper said. “We’re proud of that, and we continue to do that.”
In its installed base, more than 8,400 Citation business jets are flying somewhere in the world today, he said. “That’s really a number that no other OEM can come close to matching. And we continue with our strategy of innovation,” he said. “That strategy, for the last few years, has been working on a clean sheet as well as many . . . upgrades as we can do at any given time.”
The Ascend’s roots are in the Citation XL, XLS and XLS+. “[The Ascend is] a major, major upgrade in [the] airplane, with a luxurious interior, flat floor, all new cockpit, G5000 technology insertions in the engines, performance improvements—and you have really almost a whole new airplane,” he said.
The avionics includes a Synthetic Vision Guidance System, enhanced situational awareness while taxiing, enhanced traffic awareness and separation and other features.
The nine-passenger aircraft includes Pratt & Whitney Canada PW5450 engines, Honeywell RE100 [XL] Auxiliary Power, 19 standard USB charging ports and three universal outlets throughout the aircraft.
IMAGE: A mockup of a Citation Ascend is on static display at Henderson Executive Airport during NBAA-BACE, which runs Oct.22-24. Credit: Brett Schauf.
