Mustang Hits The Ground Running
Cessna left little doubt as to how serious it is about claiming its share of the very light jet (VLJ) market with the splashy arrival of its Mustang prototype at EAA AirVenture on Tuesday. With Cessna CEO Jack Pelton at the controls, the latest stablemate in the Citation line did a low and over (flyby) before landing and receiving a personal greeting from EAA President Tom Poberezny. “We’re really happy that Cessna chose AirVenture for the public debut of this exciting new aircraft,” Poberezny told AVweb. Pelton said the aircraft performed as expected on the cross-country flight wasn’t pushed to its full potential. “We flew it at FL 270 because it’s not certified for RVSM,” he said, noting the speed was reduced by the lower altitude. And while the Cessna CEO wasn’t concerned about speed on the trip from Wichita, there’s not much doubt the company is galloping to catch Eclipse in the race for market share.
