Cessna Announces New Innovations
Cessna Aircraft Company, a Textron Inc. company, announces the addition of products and support services to its portfolio of customer maintenance solutions. Focusing on efficiencies and time savings for maintenance, mobile capabilities and aftermarket solutions, Cessna representatives announced the programs at the NBAA 2013 Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition (BACE) aviation trade show in Las Vegas.
“Cessna has a long heritage of taking care of customers after the sale," says Joe Hepburn, senior vice president of customer service. "Citation Service is the largest service network in the aviation industry, and continues to rank at the top of customer service surveys for a reason. We take great pride in our aircraft, and we are also very proud of the way we serve our customers throughout their ownership experience. We are always looking for innovative service concepts to present to the customer, and we are enthusiastic about our new and existing offerings.”
New Citation models are being equipped with the Cessna–designed Cessna diagnostic maintenance system (CDMS) approach to diagnostic maintenance. This system integrates event-driven and full-time data recording. The CDMS can provide maintenance needs on the pilot’s multi-function display and push that data to the aircraft’s service center.
“The integrated diagnostic system is capable of alerting the customer, the pilot, and the Citation Service Center of maintenance need, enabling remote support within minutes of notification, whether the aircraft is on the ground or in the air,” says Hepburn. “The integrated diagnostics provide high confidence that applied corrective action will resolve the issue at the first occurrence, resulting in quicker return-to-service for the customer, and improved operational availability for the aircraft.”
Citation Service will offer the Aircraft Recording System II (AReS II) for Citation customers. AReS II can record thousands of flight parameters each second and download this flight data wirelessly to Cessna’s internal network for analysis by service technicians. This process reduces or eliminates the need for troubleshooting test flights, often enabling the reproduction of an event on the ground using information transmitted from the aircraft.
Cessna also announced an expansion of the company’s mobile service capabilities with two key additions to the company’s mobile platforms. A new service vehicle has been based in Chicago as of Oct.1, 2013. This modified truck is more capable of supporting scheduled and unscheduled maintenance and on-site technical expertise. The company will also base an additional full-time mechanic in Houston, Texas to fill the Citation service needs in the region.
Cessna will offer an upgrade program for legacy Citation X aircraft. The aircraft appearance upgrades include a new paint scheme on the exterior, and a new interior designed by Cessna’s interior design team. The flight deck receives upgraded avionics with the Honeywell Primus Elite system. The upgraded Citation X will comply with Next-Gen technology requirements with ADS-B Out capability. Phone and Internet capabilities will be increased. Updated electronics and more familiar capabilities will replace the entire cabin management system.
Citation Service Centers will offer winglets for legacy Sovereign owners. The prototype legacy Sovereign with winglets made its maiden flight last week. Cessna Service will also offer aftermarket winglets for several models in the CJ family of business jets through an exclusive agreement with Tamarack Aerospace Group. In certain flight profiles, the winglets can provide an aircraft with greater range, increased useful loads and improved high and hot performance while improving fuel economy. Plans call for winglets from Tamarack to be available for installation on several models in the CJ family of aircraft at Citation Service Centers in 2015.
For more information, visit Cessna.com/citation-service.