ovrtake92

http://www.cessna.com/NewReleases/New/NewReleaseNum-1192355835218.html

Not much range for a bigger plane but looks beautiful inside

USMCFLYR

Two new types announced in the past 14 days, but no mention of the Columbus.
Do you know if the Columbus is officially dead in the water or still sitting on a back burner in a different room?

USMCFLYR

Cubdriver

When I left there it was dead. They gave KS back its $33 million incentive and removed the office trailers brought on property for engineering. Even if they wanted to do it now there is not a plant big enough to build it. If they do choose to revive it, I would venture a guess it will be in Mexico.

ce650

I saw the mock-up at NBAA. Interior was great, I was dissapointed with the range though. But then again, who wants to spend that much time in a citation!?

Cruz5350

I saw it NBAA was very nice love the flight deck too.

Cubdriver

Cessna-Textron really should have continued building the Columbus. Both the timing on the development cycle and the market niche it was aimed at were correct. New designs take 5 years to bring to market, and while the recession is going on is the perfect time to be developing a new model in anticipation of a recovery. When the bizjet market recovers, Cessna will have nothing in the lucrative super-midsize category and even during the recession, the super-midsize category has remained strong. Inter-continental jet buyers are generally self-financed and Gulfstreams, Challengers, and large Falcons are selling as well as they ever did. Why Textron pulled Cessna out of its CE-850 development program is something I will never understand. It may have had to do with cash flow, because it had nothing to do with smart planning.

BoilerUP

With a cabin cross-section larger than any existing midsize jet (and only a few inches narrower than the Legacy 450), I'm guessing comfort won't be a factor.

I'd also bet a c-note that the range of the Latitude goes up at least 10%, based on Cessna's history of sandbagging initial performance estimates.

As far as Fatation goes...didn't Cessna finish that large building at the factory that was destined for Columbus production in ICT? The shell was up in early 2009 when we were taking delivery of our plane and I was told plans were to complete the facility.

Cubdriver

The Columbus plant was never built. Cessna built several new buildings between 2005-08 since the small jet business was booming. You may be thinking about the interiors shop which is close to the runway at ICT. They added lots of new buildings and parking lots during that time. It was a strong growth period.

Put in <37°39'0.51"N, 97°24'52.80"W> in Google Earth. The dirt pad for the CE-850 building was built in 2008 and is visible in the G-E photo. That was to be the Columbus 850 plant, and nothing but the pad is there now. Heavy equipment built the pad in 2008 near Hoover Road. The bulldozers quit suddenly in late 2008 when the recession set in. They seeded it with grass, and that was the last of the Columbus 850 program. Engineers were dispersed to other programs and many thousands- 8,000 people in all including yours truly, half the entire company, were let go.

In the current Google Earth photo you can see what's left of the 30-something engineering trailers that were brought in just for the CE-850 project. In the G-E photo most of them are gone, and a few are still visible ready to be towed out. I remember that week clearly. Textron made them bail out and Cessna has never been the same. I wish them well.

kingairfun

Wow I agree 100%.. I was actually thinking the exact same thing almost word for word just 2 days ago....... IMO Cessna dropped the ball huge on that one.....

Only wild card would have been the Netjet orders that would have been cancelled. That would have probably been a fairly large amount of initial orders... It would have still most likely sold well, but NJA would definitely had been a catalyst for the programs start.

BoilerUP

There was a building going up in early 2009 on the north side of the factory that was much taller than anything south of it; I was told that was for Columbus. Like I said, there was a steel frame up at that time and it looked to be at least semi-active.