Roger Whyte, Cessna’s senior vice president of sales and marketing, told attendees at the first ABACE that Cessna’s presence in the country dates back to 1982. “Including our current orders, Cessna has 60 single-engine propeller-driven aircraft, eight Caravans and 17 Citations [on order or in service] in Asia,” he said.

In fact, China’s Citation fleet will nearly double by year-end, when Cessna will have delivered eight new Citations to the country, expanding the fleet to 17.

“It took 20 years to deliver the first nine Citations to China,” Whyte said. “We are watching China open up and we see great potential for Cessna’s product line.”

Citations Will Fill the Flight-training Role

So far this year, Cessna has delivered five Citations CJ1s in China, with a sixth slated for delivery in the third quarter. The Civil Aviation Flying University of China (CAFUC) will use the CJ1s for flight training.

Each Citation CJ1 will be equipped with three large 8- by 10-inch Pro Line 21 flat-panel, color liquid crystal displays–one primary flight display for the pilot and copilot and a central multifunction display. CAFUC has also ordered 42 Cessna 172 Skyhawks for primary flight training. Twenty of the Skyhawks will be equipped with the new all-glass and fully integrated Garmin G1000 avionics package. The remainder will be outfitted with analog flight instruments. Delivery is scheduled to begin during the first quarter of next year.

After primary flight training, CAFUC students will transition from the Skyhawk 172R to the school’s new Cessna Citation CJ1s for advanced flight training.

Cessna will also deliver two Citation XLSes in the fall to China’s air traffic management bureau (specifically, the acronym-defiant “China Flight Inspection Center of Air Traffic Management Bureau of General Aviation of Civil Aviation of China”).

Both aircraft will be based at Beijing’s Capital City Airport and will supplement an existing Citation VI used for flight-inspection missions and a Citation X that is used for executive transportation. This marks the first delivery of a Citation XLS in China.