Cessna announces the Citation Latitude, A new large-cabin Latitude jet

For the second time in a month, Cessna Aircraft has announced a new business jet, this time a large-cabin aircraft with an initial offering price of $13.9 million and a base price of $14.9 million reports AOPA online. “The Latitude is priced between the $12.2 million Citation XLS+ and the $16.99 million Citation Sovereign models. The prices are in 2011 dollars and tied to an escalator.

Latitude cabin forwardThe wing, engine nacelles, tail, and mechanical flight controls are very much like those on the Sovereign, although winglets that one Cessna marketing executive likes to call Eco-tips will be added. The most important feature of the all-new aluminum fuselage is the flat-floor, six-foot cabin height. It maintains a 6,000-foot cabin pressure at 45,000 feet. The fuselage includes bigger windows and, borrowed from the canceled Columbus large-cabin jet, an electrically actuated larger airstair door. It uses trailing-link landing gear. It will have a takeoff weight slightly more than 28,000 pounds.

The model is aimed directly at the Embraer Legacy 450 that will fly in 2012, two years before the Latitude. The 450 has a launch price in excess of $1 million more than the Latitude launch price. It will enter service in 2013, again two years before the Latitude. It also has a flat-floor cabin but has a cabin height that is one-half-inch less than the Lattitude. The 450 has autothrottles. Embraer is seen as Cessna’s biggest competition. The model announced two weeks ago, the Citation M2, is aimed at the Embraer Phenom 10.”