Textron Aviation is celebrating the 45th anniversary of the first Citation delivery. The first, a Cessna Citation 500, was delivered to American Airlines in January 1972, where it was used for the development of the company's training programme. Since then, the Citation series has become the most popular line of business jets ever produced with more than 7,000 delivered to customers around the world.

The worldwide fleet has amassed nearly 35 million flight hours. “This milestone is really a celebration of the thousands of people through the years, customers and employees, who have made the Citation line of business jets the world leader,” says senior VP of sales and marketing Kriya Shortt. “In terms of customer satisfaction, aircraft value and performance, precision design, production quality and lifecycle customer support, nothing comes close to what the Cessna Citation family offers the global marketplace.”