Today’s Top Pick is a 1984 Cessna 650 Citation III.

Cessna’s first Citation jets broke new ground in the early 1970s with their forgiving flight characteristics, easy handling, passenger comfort, and economical operation. The only thing the straight-winged machines lacked, some critics said, was speed. Unflattering nicknames, such as “NearJet” and “Slow-Tation,” proliferated. The 650 Citation II put a stop to that with a new swept-wing design and record-setting performance.  

With the 650 Cessna focused its efforts on integrating high-end features that could give the new Citation the feel of bigger and more expensive airplanes. These ranged from a comfortable, surprisingly roomy cabin to trailing link landing gear known for smoothing out even fairly rough landings.

This 1984 Citation III has 9,931 hours on the airframe with 1,939 hours on the left engine and 1,741 hours on the right. The Honeywell TFE731-3C-100S engines are managed under the MSP Gold program. The aircraft is equipped with a Sundstrand T62T-40C7A1 APU and has made a total of 7,336 landings.

The panel features a PS Engineering PMA-8000E audio panel, dual Garmin GTN 750 GPS/Nav/Comms, Bendix/King KTR-953 radio, Garmin GWX 70 radar, Garmin TAWS B, Bendix/King TCAS, Goodrich WX500 Stormscope, Fairchild GA-100 cockpit voice recorder, and GTX 345R transponder with ADS-B In and Out.

Pilots who are interested in a jet with more cabin space and longer range than many light jets should consider this 1984 Cessna 650 Citation III, which is available for $1.2 million on Aircraft For Sale.

You can arrange financing of the aircraft through FLYING Finance. For more information, email info@flyingfinance.com.

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The post This 1984 Cessna 650 Citation III Is a Groundbreaking ‘AircraftForSale’ Top Pick appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

First flown in January 1971, only one XMC was built, and it was never intended for series production. Instead, it was intended to serve as a research aircraft, enabling the company to more thoroughly explore various concepts, technologies, and manufacturing technologies. Perhaps to remove any doubt regarding the purpose of the XMC, Cessna explained that the name was an acronym that stood for “eXperimental Magic Carpet.”

• READ MORE: Previous editions of “History’s Unique Aircraft”

Looking at the stats, the XMC resembled a futuristic 150. It was equipped with the same 100 hp Continental O-200 four-cylinder engine, it weighed approximately 1,000 pounds, and it had two seats. Even the wingspan was similar, only 6 inches less than the 150. 

But similar as the technical specifications may have been, the two airplanes couldn’t have been more different…which was the entire point. The XMC’s engine was relocated to the aft end of the fuselage, and the traditional tail was replaced with a twin-boom arrangement that resembled the much larger Skymaster twin. This resulted in a decidedly new look that was a significant departure from the existing airframes.

Because the powerplant was unchanged and the weight similar to the 150, Cessna did not expect the XMC to exhibit markedly different performance. Instead, the company used the airplane to evaluate various manufacturing methods, such as metal bonding, to reduce the cost of production aircraft. A later modification of the XMC would see the introduction of a propeller shroud, intended to explore improvements in propeller efficiency and noise reduction.

Cessna’s interest in the XMC extended beyond the technical aspects, however. In a 1971 Popular Science interview, Cessna president Del Raskom explained how one of the benefits to the pusher-propeller layout was the ease of cabin entry. He felt that this was more difficult in a traditional tractor-prop layout, and he touted the XMC’s wider, lower cabin and comparatively massive doors.

When asked about the swept wing, Raskom claimed it was chosen for style and visibility. While the visibility from the XMC’s cabin was undoubtedly fantastic, it’s possible the sweep was primarily a function of the center of gravity. Many aircraft with aft-mounted engines struggle with a center of gravity that moves too far aft with an empty cabin, and the XMC’s wing sweep might have actually been utilized to position the fuel tanks farther forward. This would have helped to prevent the airplane from tipping onto its tail with an empty cabin, as the Rutan EZ models will do if the nose gear isn’t retracted.

The XMC would go on to serve its purpose as a research vehicle, and then disappeared from public view entirely. Presumably scrapped, only a handful of photos remain. The photos you see here were recently located in Textron Aviation’s historical archives and were subsequently cleared for public viewing. 

Today, photos are apparently all that remain. There is no record of any XMC models ever being mass produced, no official company brochures appear to have ever been distributed, and detailed information about the airplane is exceedingly scarce. Perhaps the only remaining artifact of the XMC is the tail number it once wore—N7174C—which is, as of this writing, available for request from the FAA registry.

The post Meet The Often-Forgotten Cessna XMC appeared first on FLYING Magazine.