Aircraft

Cessna's Citation Mustang has extended its lead in the race for full certification among very light jets with US Federal Aviation Administration approval for flight into known icing. FAA type certification was awarded in September.

"It's the first very light jet to be completely and fully certified to all the requirements," says president and chief executive Jack Pelton." We're only weeks away from getting our full FAA production certification, relative to the assembly of the airplane, which no one else has done."

Pelton predicts 40 deliveries for 2007. "To date, we have over 21 airplanes in the production flow. We have seven in various stages of flight," he says, adding that Cessna has more than 250 orders for the Mustang, half of which are for foreign customers, with the next available delivery slot in 2009.