100th Citation Mustang Delivered

By the time this issue is read, Cessna will have delivered the 100th Citation Mustang since the type entered service in April 2007 (two of which have been delivered to New Zealand customers). More than half of the Mustangs it has delivered have gone to international owners and operators. Brazil is Cessna’s largest single international market for the Mustang outside the European Union.

Cessna delivered forty-five Mustangs in 2007 and expects to deliver 100 of them this year—approximately 60 percent of them to international customers.

The current fleet has accumulated more than 17,000 flight hours and the highest-time aircraft has logged nearly 500 hours.

By applying what Cessna refers to as “Textron Six Sigma process methodology”, its employees at the company’s Independence, Kansas facility now move one Mustang out of production every 12 hours. The company says that continued efforts will allow it to reach its targeted full production rate of about 150 aircraft a year in 2009.

There have now been more than 500 orders for the Citation Mustang, including orders from seven fleet operators—three of which have already taken their first deliveries.