GL Private Jets

The Cessna Aircraft Company, A Review

The Cessna Aircraft Company was built in 1927 by Clyde Cessna himself in Wichita, Kansas. First it made only small pistoned aircraft, now Cessna also makes business jets. Now the owner of Cessna is Textron Aviation.

Once a farmer, Mr. Clyde Cessna first built and flew his own-made airplane in June 1911. In 1927, Clyde Cessna met Victor Roos, and they became partners to make the Cessna-Roos Aircraft Company, but Victor Roos sold his interest in the company back to Clyde Cessna. That day, Clyde Cessna owned 100% of his company. His first produced aircraft, the Cessna DC-6, got the certification in the same day of the stock market crash in 1929. And if it was not bad enough, due to the Great Depression, Cessna closed its factory in 1932.



But its Cessna CR-3 won the competition in 1933, The American Air Race in Chicago, and also set the speed record. That achievement made his company to be known worldwide. After that the duo Dwayne and Dwight Wallace took the helmet and turn it into the legend of the aircraft world.
In 1940, luck came to the company as the US Army ordered 33 special custom Cessna T-50s, soon be followed by the Canadian Air Force to order 180 same airplanes. To this date, those two orders was their biggest order has been received.

After the World War 2, Cessna released the 120 and 140 models, introducing an all-metal aircraft and production tools, not hand-made airplanes like they made it before the World War 2. The 140 Model got the “Outstanding Plane of the Year 1948” by the US Flight Instructor Association. Cessna also produced helicopters, started from the Cessna CH-1 in 1955.



The legendary Cessna Citation series started its tale in 1969 by the flight of Cessna Citation I. in 1975, Cessna had built its 100,000 planes. In 1985, General Dynamics bought Cessna and started the Cessna Caravan, then General Dynamics sold Cessna to Textron Inc, in 1992. Textron become the owner of Cessna Aircraft until now.

In 2007, Cessna announced that it wanted to make the Cessna 162 in China, join venture with the Shenyang Aircraft Corporation, a Chinese Government company. But many protested their intention, and Cessna had to make press conference just to explain the business point of view, and they also made sure that the airplane’s quality is the same as if the Cessna 162 was made in the USA. The number of complaints was just increased, rather than decreased. But Cessna still made the production in China.

Cessna cannot escape the 2008 financial crisis, and had to cut thousands of workers and closed the Oregon facility. With this incident, Textron also announced the loss of US$ 8M, most of them was because of the loss of Cessna.




In 2011, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) fined Cessna US$ 4M for not finding the failure of following quality assurance requirement in production of 83 Cessna 400.

Bombardier Aerospace Inc. - King of Air in Canada

Do you know what is the third biggest airplane manufacturer in the world? It is still in debat between Bombardier, which I am writing about in this article, or Brazil’s Embraer, which I will write about it in the next article. But whatever the real answer is, they both are amazing companies, which is the reason why I am going to make a review about them.

Well, to begin with, Bombardier is a Canada based company. Its name when established was Bombardier Inc. Now Bombardier Inc. is the mother company of Bombardier Aerospace. With the headquarter is in Quebec, Canada, Bombardier employed more than 35,000 persons total.

At first, Bombardier Inc, bought Canadair in 1986 to make the nearly-bankrupt company into a profitable one. Then an Ireland based aircraft manufacturer, Short Brothers was acquired, also a near bankrupt company as well. Following Short Brothers are the already-bankrupt Learjet business aircraft division of Wichita, Kansas in 1990, plus a money-burner Boeing division company, de Havilland Aircraft of Canada in 1992, based in Toronto, Canada.



Now the aerospace division is responsible for more than half of the mother company’s main revenue. The most popular aircraft of this company is the CRJ series, which includes CRJ700, CRJ900, and CRJ1000. The other most popular series are Dash 8 Series 400, and CRJ100, CRj200, and CRJ440.
To make an improvement for their assembly plant, Bombardier plans to build two factory, in Kansas City, Missouri, and Mirabel, Quebec, Canada, to increase the usage of the CSeries, which are the most sold airplane in Bombardier.



To compete face-to-face with Boeing’s most popular 737 Series next generation, Bombardier makes the CSeries which offers 110 seats and 130 seats. With a claim of 20% more fuel efficient, that makes the CSeries 8% more fuel efficient compared with Boeing 737 Max.

Lufthansa has already pre-order 60 CSeries aircrafts, with an option of additional 30 more. In 2011, NetJets has also placed an order of 50 plus additional options up to 70 CSeries aircrafts, worth $2.8 to $6.7 billion. For customers who needs any financial plan, Bombardier and China’s ICBC work together to supply the financing for up to $8 billion.

The biggest deal in the aircraft history was made in November 2012, between Bombardier and Swiss’ VistaJet. VistaJet wants to buy 56 Bombardier Global jets worth to $3.1 billion, with an option for Bombardier to sell another 86 Global jets, which makes the total transaction of $7.3 billion.




But in July 2014, as the president Guy Hachey retired, Bombardier divided the company into three division, commercial aircraft, business aircraft, and aerospace and aerostructure manufacture. This led to a more than 1,800 employees were fired.

Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation by General Dynamics

The Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation is United States’ most advanced private jet and business jet manufacturer. Its parent company is General Dynamics. At first, in 1950’s late, Gulfstream Aerospace was named The Grumman Aircraft Engineering Co. who produced and developed military aircrafts. Later it made the first business jet called Grumman Gulfstream I (GI). With a maximum speed of 350 mph, and can accommodate up to 12 passengers, the GI was a big success for the Grumman Aircraft.



Then fueled with the success of GI, they moved forward to Grumman Gulfstream II (GII). This also began the separation of the military aircraft manufacture and civil aircraft manufacture in 1966. The civilian aircraft production then was moved to Savannah, Georgia, where there are many skilled labors and more room for any expansion of the factory.

The Grumman Aircraft Engineering then joined with the American Aviation Corp. a light aircraft manufacturer in 1972. But in 1978, Grumman sold the Savannah based factory to the American Jet Industries, headed by Allen Paulson. He renamed the company to Gulfstream American, and accelerated the production of GulfstreamIII, more speed and more flight range compared to G II. The G III was first sold in 1980, and became the first business jet to fly over the both poles. The G III marked the first big success of the Gulfstream series in the marketplace.

Fast forward to 2000s. The General Dynamics, saw the big opportunities in Gulfstream, bought this company. General Dynamics then built the support facility in Savannah facility. Also in 2001, to improve the maintenance and repair of the Gulfstream series, it bought four US maintenance facilities, in Minneapolis, Dallas, Las Vegas, and West Palm Beach.

After using Romanian number for its product, Gulfstream started to use Arabic numerals in 2002. The production were included the high speed Gulfstream G100, mid range Gulfstream G200 and G300, long range Gulfstream G400, and the ultra long range Gulfstream G500 and G550.
2003 marked its expansion outside of the US by acquired the London based service center. The Gulfstream G450 was also first introduced to the market.



The legendary Gulfstream G650’s first showdown was in 2009, when it walked out of the Savannah manufacturing factory, and had its first flight in November 25 that year.

An unpleasant news was heard in 2011, one of the Gulfstream G650 was in an accident when it failed to fly, crashing to the runway of Roswell, and directly killing its four crews, two test pilots and two flight test engineers. By the investigation of the National Transportation Safety Board, they found the cause of the accident. Using the data, Gulfstream made the version 2 of the G650. They raised the speed of the V2.

Their next innovation was in 2012, when the news of their newest business jet was heard, a quiet supersonic business jet, which its first drawing was shown in December 2012.




Nowadays more than 40 countries have and operate any Gulfstream business jets. The aircraft is not only for doing fast travel, but also modified to medical evacuations, pilot and astronaut trainings, cargo and personnel transportation, and maritime and aerial reconnaissance.

Cessna Citation X Review: The Fastest Iron-Bird In The Sky

Hi, are you interested in knowing more about this Cessna Citation X? Me too! That’s why I decide to write this review about Citation X so you can learn more from this article. Please keep in mind that I do not have any affiliate with Cessna, so I am not promoting their aircraft. I can guarantee you that this is an honest review. Then let’s continue!

The Citation X Development and History

At 1993, Cessna announced the Citation new 750 family, called Citation X, to replace a slower and smaller baggage room 650 family series, like Citation III. At that time, the brand of Cessna was well-known for its best handling, which result in a slower airplane. Their main competitor, the Bombardier Learjets family was already known for their speed. With this Citation X, Cessna want to change the image of slow aircraft, even though the Citation is claimed as the fastest in the sky.

And finally, the first Citation X was complete in July 1996 and delivered to Arnold Palmer, a legendary golfer. From time to time, Cessna Citation X breaks many speed records. Thus it was awarded with many awards. Cessna then did an upgrade in October 200 to add more thrust power in maximum takeoff weight.


Cessna Citation X Specs


Two Rolls Royce AE3007C2 turbo fan engines push the Citation X with a dual channel controlled engine. This Rolls Royce engine’s bypass ratio is 5:1. With a length of 22.05 m, height of 5.84 m, wingspan of 19.38 m, Citation X can takeoff with a maximum weight of 16,374 kg.

With those two powerful engines, Citation X has a maximum record speed of 0.935 Mach or equals to 978 km/h. This speed makes it as the fastest civilian private aircraft in the sky. Can take up to 1,930 gallons fuel, Citation X can fly to a maximum range of 6,351 km.

Its cockpit deck is equipped with a Garmin® G5000™  avionics suite, all with touch screen controllers. The pilot can see the traffic coming from far miles away, 3D terrain, and weather patterns. Garmin also gives the Citation X the Garmin’s Synthetic Vision Technology, which allows the pilot to view the terrain such as water, traffic, any obstacles, runways, and landing condition, even in the zero visibility condition.


Citation X Interior


Please note that this is not a single crew aircraft, so it takes two pilots to fly this airplane. The maximum number of passenger is 12 persons. Tailored to your request, Cessna will specifically design your cabin, from formal office to personal heaven. Its cabin technology is supported by Clairity™, an intelligent cabin management and entertainment connected with the electrical systems and deck’s avionics. Clairity™ allows you to control the cabin lightning, windows shade, play any DVD, and change the cabin’s temperature.

Conclusion

Cessna have a big success with the Citation X, now they upgrade it into Citation X+, which also called The New Citation X. This add more speed, more cabin space, more baggage, and wider wingspan. The Citation X is truly the fastest and most robust private aircraft in the business jet market available today.

Dassault Falcon 900 Specs and Review: Home Sweet Home

Hello, in this article I am gonna make a review about Dassault Falcon 900 and its specs so if you are looking for the information, then you are nowhere to go. This is what you really need. Falcon 900 was first produced in 1984 and they still make it today. This is the proof that this stunning airplane is one of the most popular airplanes nowadays for most people.

We are going to start from its specs first.

Dassault Falcon 900 Specs

Falcon 900 is powered by three, yes three Honeywell TFE731-60 engines, each has output of 21.13 kN (4,750 lbf). It can accommodate 2 crews plus 19 passengers with its wide cabin. Falcon 900 has a 33.2 feet cabin length, not included cockpit and baggage, and a width of 92 inch. It has a dimension of length 66.31 feet, height 24.75 feet, and wing span of 70.17 feet.

With that specification, Falcon 900 can fly at a maximum speed of 0.87 Mach and travel range of 7,400 km with the 20,905 lbs fuel.

The Falcon 900 is the first design of its own series, started with Falcon 900, then improved into Falcon 900-B with more powerful engine and fly range. After that the Falcon 900EX with its revolutionary all-glass flight deck. Later Falcon 900-B was changed into Falcon 900-C.

Later they introduced the next generation of Falcon series, which was Falcon 900EX EASy and Falcon 900DX. The latest version is named Falcon 900LX. The 900LX is equipped with the High Mach Blended Winglets by Aviation Partners.


Falcon 900 Technologies


The new Falcon 900 LX is powered with three Honeywell TFE731-60 turbofans engines which can give a 5,000 lbs power output each. That is an extraordinary performance even under the worst condition. Falcon also has tri-jet security who provides you a safer, slower approach and landing speed.

Its cockpit is enhanced with the famous EASy II, the most trusted and reliable avionics system. This man-to-machine designed superb cockpit, together with their Enhanced Vision System, promises a safer, more efficient, and the best awareness fly you ever have. Enhanced Vision System allows the pilot to landing on the low-visibility land.

Not only from the technology view, its cabin is very well designed to meet the standard of a President. They give you a spacious, as well a sleeping promise in a long haul flight, elegant, and flexible living area in the cabin.


Conclusion

Dassault Falcon 900 (LX) is the ultimate of luxurious private jet. Made in France, they promise a French-feeling whenever you fly with Falcon 900. A promise of your private flying home-sweet-home.

There is also a faster version of Dassault aircraft named Falcon 7X. Find out the information about it here - glprivatejets.blogspot.com/2015/03/dassault-falcon-7x-review-quickest-jet.html