For some aircraft manufacturers, cycle times for new jet programs are accelerating, meaning that the time from launch to design freeze to prototype rollout and certification is finally getting shorter. This is clearly evident at the NBAA static display at Henderson Airport, where Textron Aviation is showing off a full-size Citation Longitude with a production interior.
Although this airplane won’t fly–it is a ground-test article–it was built on what will become production tooling and for all intents and purposes it looks like a real airplane that could fly back to Wichita after the show. It is also evident that the Longitude is, well, long, at 73 feet from nose to tail, 20 feet tall and 67 feet from wingtip to wingtip.
The Longitude, like the Latitude, features a six-foot standup flat-floor cabin. Both airplanes share the same fuselage width (77 inches interior) and height, but the Longitude is just over 10 feet longer. Powered by Honeywell’s HTF7000 series turbofans, the Longitude is much faster, too, with a high-speed cruise of 476 ktas versus the Latitude’s 446 ktas. Full fuel payload for the Longitude will be 1,500 pounds, 500 more than the Latitude. And while the Longitude originally was to have a range of 4,000 nm, that is now 3,400 nm. This has to do with Textron Aviation’s announcement of the new large-cabin, 4,500-nm Hemisphere and the positioning of the Latitude, Longitude and Hemisphere as a new three-product family.
“What we’ve done instead of two planes in this space, we got the ability to put three in this space and cover different ranges that we feel are competitively priced and with brand-new technology,” said Textron Aviation president and CEO Scott Ernest. “This is a great story of growth, continuing to invest in the product and listening to the customer.”
There are other similarities between the Latitude and Longitude, including the Garmin G5000-based flight deck with Garmin autothrottles and radar. Both also are equipped with a vacuum-assisted externally serviced lavatory. The Longitude will offer a full galley with sink and potable water and in the cabin, there is 20 percent more legroom than in competing airplanes, according the Michael Thacker, senior vice president of engineering. The Longitude’s baggage area will be accessible in flight. Seats are all new and are the largest for any Citation. “This is a no-excuses super-midsize jet, with a combination of payload, speed and range that is the best in the industry and with lower operating costs,” he said.
Streamlining Production Processes
Textron Aviation engineers are constantly refining airplane design and manufacturing processes, and this contributes to the company’s ability to bring airplanes to market quickly. One example is the use of more robotic tools on the assembly line. The wing jig, for example, uses robots to drill the 6,000 holes that eventually will be filled by rivets. Instead of a technician drilling each hole, which takes three levels of step drilling for each hole, the robot drills accurately and without error in about 20 percent of the time. “The robot doesn’t get its elbow or shoulder injured,” Thacker said. “There’s a safety and quality benefit.”
Robotics are also used to make some components, such as aft pressure bulkheads, more efficiently. Textron Aviation engineers designed the robotics systems in-house, instead of seeking third-party assistance. “We chose that path on purpose,” Thacker said. “We quoted with outside suppliers, and they wanted a ridiculous amount of money. And if it breaks you have to call them. We’re doing it faster, at a third of the cost of what suppliers charge. We bought existing off the shelf [robotics] products. The science is programming it and making it work. We’re being asked, from a manufacturing perspective, how to take that [design] and move into full rate production faster than before,” he said.
Engineers also look for opportunities to simplify systems and make them more reliable. One example is a power takeoff unit, which normally consists of three independent components. This has been combined into one unit with fewer moving parts, lower weight and less cost.
All of this work is clearly helping Textron Aviation achieve some of the fastest certification cycle times in the industry, with the Latitude going from first flight to certification in just 14 months. The Longitude is now scheduled to fly in mid-2016, with deliveries in the second half of 2017.
