Cessna Citation Latitude - Up Close
Hawker Pacific were handling the dispatch of N985BC this morning, and while the crew were in the office preparing for the flight, I spent almost an hour photographing the aircraft from every angle. The aircraft was parked facing out from the hangar doors, with the tail point towards the sun. As I walked out onto the apron, the most striking part of this Latitude was the amazing livery, black and blue-gray brush strokes on the white fuselage, with black engine cowls and black tail. Join me now for a walk around Citation Latitude N985BC.
The Latitude is an impressive super-midsized corporate jet with a maximum operating altitude of 45,000 feet.
The new fuselage features considerably improved nose aerodynamics that reduce both drag and cockpit noise.
Behind the composite nose radome is the high-resolution Garmin GWX 70 weather radar, with 12inch antenna and processor.
The glass windshields are designed to meet bird resistance requirements of 14 CFR Part 25.
The fuselage has a constant circular cross section and is attached to the wing without any cut-outs for the spar. A flat
floor from just behind the cockpit through to the lavatory provides stand-up access throughout the cabin.
Reinforced frame structures surround the main door opening, emergency exit, and windshields providing structural continuity. The wing leading edges are anti-iced using engine bleed air.
Long-life LEDs are used for the navigation, beacon and strobe lights.
With a wing area is 542.5-square feet, and a MTOW of 30,800 lbs, the Latitude has the lowest wing loading of any super-midsize jet.
The two 5,907 lb thrust Pratt & Whitney PW306D engines deliver a maximum cruise speed of 450 KTAS.
A typical flight profile might be 420-430 knots at 41,000-42,000 feet, while for the longest sectors, cruise would be more like 410-420 knots.
Engine start is accomplished electrically through a starter-generator powered by any of the following sources: the
aircraft’s two batteries, the auxiliary power unit, the other running engine, or a ground power unit.
Hydraulically actuated, target-type thrust reversers are attached to each engine. Deployment takes about one second.
This engine is a twin spool design with a damage resistant wide chord fan. Behind the fan, four axial and one centrifugal compressor stages lead to a high efficiency, low emission, through flow combustor and five turbine stages.
The Honeywell RE100 APU is certified for start at up to 20,000 feet, and can be used up to 30,000 ft. Fuel burn for the APU is about 110 to 125 pounds per hour. The two Anhedral stabilising fins improve lateral and directional stability at high angles of attack.
The horizontal stabilizer is designed with no dihedral and is trimable by an electrically driven actuator. The elevators each have anti-float tabs that are interconnected to the horizontal stabiliser. Engine bleed air protects the leading edge of the horizontal stabiliser from ice. A single rudder on the vertical stabiliser controls yaw with a servo type trim tab. A red flashing beacon is mounted on the top.
Electrically driven aluminium Fowler flaps, arranged in three sections on each wing, and hydraulically driven spoilers, five
sections per wing, are utilised for lift, drag, and roll control.
The wing tips include navigation and anti-collision strobe lights and static wicks.
Optionally available is the Aircell’s Aviator 300 Inmarsat Satcom Internet system (Antenna dome fitted on top of the fuselage).
Welcome on-board the Cessna Citation Latitude - With a cabin pressurisation of 9.7 psi, the Latitude can maintain a 6,000-ft. cabin pressure up to an altitude of 45,000 feet.
The cabin layout has three rows of two seats with a centre aisle, with the first two rows set in a club configuration. The dining/work tables fold back into the cabin side panels. There are large IFE screens at the front and rear of the main cabin, which are operated by a Cabin Management iPad display. The six main cabin seats have 7 inches of fore/aft tracking, 4 inches of lateral tracking, and 180 degrees of swivel. Each pair of facing chairs can be reclined into fully flat berths.
The aft lavatory has an externally serviced toilet, along with an amply sized sink with hot and cold running water. The Emergency Exit is located on the starboard side of the lavatory.
Four individual 110 volt AC, 5 amp outlets (two in the cabin, two in the cockpit) are installed to operate laptop computers, etc. Twelve individual USB charging ports (two at each pedestal seat) are also installed with sufficient power to charge phones and tablets.
The nose gear has dual tyres, and retracts forward (pushed by the long hydraulic piston).
Two Incandescent lamp taxi lights are fitted to the nose landing gear.
Two nose tyres with a single chine are used on the nose gear for water and slush deflection. The nose gear automatically centres while retracting forward into the nose wheel bay.
Seven degrees of nose-wheel steering is available through the rudder pedals, and the tiller provides 81 degrees of steering. All ground handling requires that the nose gear scissor connector be disconnected (see image) to allow full castering and to prevent damage.
Two emergency gear extension methods are provided: a pneumatic blow-down system (independent bottle in nose) and manual gear release handles.
The Emergency oxygen bottle is accessed via a door on the port side of the aircraft nose, and has a 77.1-cu.-ft. capacity. Emergency oxygen is supplied to the crew through quick-donning masks, and to the passengers using drop-down masks.
The Main Cabin door is counter sprung, opened manually, and closed electrically. It is operated by pushing the Opening Lever upwards, while pressing the button on the handle itself. Two indicator lights show "Door Open" and "Cabin Pressure" warnings. Each stair tread has LED lighting.
Multi-disk carbon brakes are installed independently on all four main gear wheels, and are hydraulically actuated (the brakes are rated for 1,000+ landings). The main tyres have a design life of 300+ landings.
The dual main gear tyres are mounted on a short, but very solid undercarriage strut. A digital anti-skid system provides individual wheel skid protection at any speed, and includes touchdown protection, a feature that prevents braking until the wheels are rotating.
The battery compartment is located on the port side, just forward of the Baggage Compartment door, and houses two 44-amp-hour nickel cadmium batteries.
The external baggage compartment features integrated steps for ease of loading.
Baggage capacity is a class leading 1,000lbs, or 100 Cubic Feet.
The Latitude has ample baggage capacity for the 6-8 passengers. The bay is certified to Class C fire protection standards, having both a quick discharge fire bottle shared with the APU, and a slow discharge bottle that is used below 25,000 ft. to suppress any residual flare-ups.
The cabin Emergency Exit is over-wing on the starboard side of the aircraft, and is accessed via the Lavatory.
The Fuel access door is mounted low on the starboard side, and just forward of the wing root. A single-point pressure refuelling receptacle is used to fill the wet wing tanks to a capacity of 10,720 lb. The over wing refuelling ports can be used to top the tanks to their maximum capacity of 11,394 lbs. Two integral fuel tanks, one in each wing, contain all of the Latitude’s fuel. System operation is fully automatic, with each engine receiving fuel from its respective wing tank. Cross-feed capability is provided and, when selected, enables both
engines to receive fuel from a single tank. Tank to tank transfer is not possible.
The wing mounted incandescent landing/recognition lights are located at the wing root.
Two flush mounted LED wing inspection lights are mounted on the fuselage to assist in detection of ice build-up during night flights.
The starboard Pitot tube and angle of attack probes are mounted below the side cockpit window.
The Cessna Citation Latitude - An impressive super-midsized corporate aircraft.
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