To make a change like altering the trapezoidal shape, touches so many adjacent engineering drawings that it costs too much in designing, drafting, engineering, parts number changes, assembly changes, tooling changes, S/N effectivity breakpoints, tech pubs updates, etc...

Once the snowball is rolling, it is very tough to put all the snow back and pick a different hill. You just wait till you're at the bottom, go back up and start all over again with the lessons learned.

I wouldn't be standing next to a mylar drafting station manned by a junior engineer making revisions if the ball wasn't still rolling from when it first started downhill in the 70's

I know a guy who recently went from a 2+ to a CJ4. How many can there be?

Some eye candy, the FanJet 500 first flight:

Distinctly Citation, but note the pointy nose (later rounded), no window in the door, no TRs, and no deice wing features. Equipped with an air data boom and what appears to be a spin chute in the tail, typical for test flights.

This was on Sept 15, 1969, less than 2 months after the Apollo 11 moon landing. No CAD, no CNC at the time.

The 50th anniversary of this flight is coming up this year, which I expect will generate various ceremonies.

Mike C.

I think they should have kept the pointy nose!

Looks more like a toucan than the catfish.

Not the same guy. Oh well.

This thread is super depressing if you're in the market for a CJ3.

Another in flight view:

Mike C.

Not the same guy. Oh well.

This thread is super depressing if you're in the market for a CJ3.

Well sure. But to also know the door shape is left over form some 1970's experiment gone wrong goes against most everything I feel about aviation.

One of the big selling features of the Phenom 300 over the CJ3 is the GV looking airstair door vs. a ladder looking contraption from your sons tree fort.

There are some treatments to the classic Citation entry:

Sierra offered a wider door mod STC that worked much like the original but wider. Not sure if it is still offered. Cost was about $200K when it was offered. Looks like it might be a handful in the wind.

Cessna offered a clam shell factory option as a retrofit. Not clear if that is still available and what it costs. This is an Ultra getting it installed in 2016:

There are some after market doohickeys to replace the fold out "ladder" that is standard, one of them is the SkyStep (also by Sierra, so not clear it is still available, cost was ~$15K):

I've also seen another aftermarket step, but can't find a picture of it as of yet.

Mike C.

got to love aviation. "Do we want to buy a new house, or a new door for the jet? They both cost the same."

Interesting there are aftermarket mods but Cessna wouldn't have just changed it from the factory decades ago.

I thought Big Tex's CFO was Robert Peak - who is not a big guy or at least one that would require an extra wide door... Must be someone else.

The Sierra door was targeted at the Air Ambulance market. It looks big on the photo and it is huge in person making it easy to put patients through it.

I don't think jet owners typically live in $200K houses.

Mike C.