Development of the CitationJet was prompted by the 1985 discontinuation of the
Citation I, a reaction to the increasing price of its
Pratt & Whitney JT15D-1 engines, which rendered it uncompetitive with its larger
straight wing Citation stablemates. Cessna believed that a substantial market still existed for a light 4-5 passenger jet with low operating costs, docile flying qualities, and the ability to operate from short runways usable by twin
piston-engined
light aircraft, a formula that had made the Citation I successful. However, that aircraft had been stigmatized for its slower cruise speed than its competitors, which had progressively been addressed in the
Citation S/II and Bravo and the
Citation V, Ultra and Encore, but at the cost of operating economy. To offer increased speed with reduced purchase and operating costs, Cessna engineers realized that a new, lighter airframe design would be needed, using less expensive and lower-thrust engines. To better compete with newer jets, Cessna also wanted to eliminate the step in the center aisle of the earlier Citations, created by the
spar passing through the cabin. Cessna launched the $2.4 million (equivalent to $ million in ) model 525 CitationJet at the October 1989
NBAA convention in Atlanta, estimating a demand for 1,000 aircraft over ten years. Its first flight was on April 29, 1991, a
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
type certificate was awarded on October 16, 1992, and first delivery happened on March 30, 1993. The aircraft met its initial design goal: its normal cruise speed was faster than that of the Citation I, and the newer CitationJet outperformed the older Citation I in all other significant metrics except maximum payload and approach noise, despite having less total engine thrust. In 2013, the CJ1 was rebranded as the Citation M2, which features extensive cabin upgrades, more thrust,
winglets, improved performance, and the
Garmin G3000 avionics suite. The M2 became Cessna's entry-level jet when the smaller and less capable
Citation Mustang was dropped in May 2017. Twenty years after its first flight, 1,450 CJs had been produced. As of June 2017, 2,000 of all variants had been delivered, with five million hours flown. In 2017, In 2021, Cessna announced new versions of the CJ1/M2, CJ3, and CJ4 branded as the
Citation Gen2, introducing more advanced avionics,
autothrottles, and a variety of cabin and cockpit upgrades. In 2024, the company announced plans for equivalent
Citation Gen3 models, which are planned to debut the
Garmin G3000 PRIME avionics suite and to introduce
Garmin emergency autoland in the CJ/M2 series. The Gen3 models are expected to enter service in 2026, and Cessna expects to offer upgrade kits to add autoland to Gen2 aircraft with autothrottles. ==Design==