Why Citation? | Business Jet Trivia | The JetAv Blog by John Hall

While Director of the CJ/Bravo Division at Cessna, my office was in the Marketing Building and I had the opportunity to host hundreds of "Wichita Visits" for clients and prospective customers. One question I always liked to ask of prospects and clients alike was "does anyone know why we call our jets Citation?". This was usually met with blank stares, even though there were plenty of hints like the horseshoe incorporated into the Citation logo, and horse portraits on display.

Rewind.

In the late 1960s Cessna was developing its first business jet designed to compete not with other business jets in production at the time, but with the turboprop market. This jet was originally called the FanJet 500. The aircraft was the first production platform to utilize the JD15D series engine from Pratt & Whitney, and was designed to be fast (relatively speaking), offer good handling characteristics, and perform well off of long or short runways consisting of hard or soft surfaces.

Citation, the horse, with a win at the 1948 Belmont Stakes became the 8th Triple Crown winner, and was one of the most successful horses in the history of the sport. Citation was known as fast, easy to handle, good at running long or short distances, and hard or soft surfaces. Sound familiar? Upon retirement, Citation enjoyed the remainder of his years as a sire at Calumet Farm where he produced a number of noteworthy offspring and was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1959.

Upon Citation's death in 1970, Cessna Chairman Dwayne Wallace honored his memory by renaming the Cessna FanJet the Cessna Citation, and the rest is history!