Now This Cessna Citation One Has Another Job.

here was a point when “Citation” did not describe an entire corner of the business-jet world.

It described one airplane.

The Cessna 500 Citation entered a market where light jets were already proving that small airplanes could move very quickly. Cessna looked at that race and decided not to run exactly the same one.

Instead, the company built around a different question.

Could a business jet be made more approachable to the pilots already flying high-end general aviation aircraft? Could it use smaller airports, offer friendlier low-speed characteristics, and bring turbine capability to operators who did not need their airplane behaving like a miniature fighter every time the wheels came up?

That thinking produced the 500 Citation.

And, eventually, an entire family followed.

Cessna 500 Citation I Parts Coming Soon From BAS Part Sales

Posted by Clinton McJenkin on Aug 16th 2026

Now This Cessna Citation One Has Another Job.

here was a point when “Citation” did not describe an entire corner of the business-jet world.

It described one airplane.

The Cessna 500 Citation entered a market where light jets were already proving that small airplanes could move very quickly. Cessna looked at that race and decided not to run exactly the same one.

Instead, the company built around a different question.

That thinking produced the 500 Citation.

And, eventually, an entire family followed.

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Cessna 500 Citation I In Disassembly:

The Jet That Chose Useful Over Flashy

Cessna announced the Fanjet 500 in 1968, and the prototype first flew on September 15, 1969.

The idea behind it was deliberately different.

Cessna saw a sizable gap between turbine aircraft like the King Air and the faster light jets already on the market. The King Air delivered turbine capability with familiar general aviation manners. The emerging light jets delivered much more speed, but they could also demand greater pilot proficiency and more runway.

Cessna wanted something in between.

The resulting aircraft used a straight wing and a pair of Pratt & Whitney Canada JT15D turbofans. After a development program that included changes to the forward fuselage, engine nacelles, tail, and horizontal stabilizer geometry, the renamed 500 Citation received FAA certification in September 1971.

It was not built around bragging rights.

It was built around usability.

That distinction became one of the most important ideas in Citation history.

Cessna Was Building A Formula

The original 500 was only the beginning.

Cessna continued developing the aircraft through the 1970s. Gross weight increased. The wingspan eventually grew. Improved engines arrived. Speed, range, ceiling, and cabin pressurization capability improved.

Those changes became the enhanced Citation I in 1976.

Then the 501 Citation I/SP followed in 1977, bringing certified single-pilot operation into the family.

That progression tells you a lot about what Cessna was building.

The company did not abandon the original concept and start over.

It kept refining it.

The 500 established the basic light-jet formula. The Citation I improved it. The I/SP pushed the owner-pilot concept farther. The Citation II later expanded the airplane again.

One useful idea kept growing.

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The Parts Story Starts Here

We do not yet have the final recovery list for this Citation, and we are not going to invent one.

As disassembly moves through the BAS turbine shop, individual components will be removed, identified, photographed, cataloged, and added to the BAS store as the aircraft works its way through the process.

Key Equipment Noted From This Citation

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Cessna 500 Citation 1:

Before The Bigger Citations, This Was The Starting Point

Today the Citation name covers decades of business-jet development, but the Cessna 500 sits right at the beginning of that family tree.

That gives the airplane a place in business-aviation history beyond its performance numbers.

The original Citation showed that a jet did not have to chase maximum speed to make sense.

Accessibility mattered. Runway flexibility mattered. Operating practicality mattered.

And for pilots stepping up from piston twins and turboprops, manageable airplane manners mattered quite a bit.

Those priorities became part of the Citation identity.

Cessna would spend decades stretching, refining, re-engining, modernizing, and expanding the idea.

This is where the idea started.

The 500 Citation I:

This One Took The Four-Wheel-Drive Route

The Cessna 500 now sitting in the BAS turbine shop made its final trip in a rather unconventional way.

After an off-runway excursion ended the aircraft’s flying career, getting it back to BAS required some field work first.

The wings came off on-site. Then the airplane came home by trailer.

That explains why current hangar photos do not show a tidy, complete Citation sitting ready for another departure.

The disassembly process effectively started before the aircraft reached our door.

For BAS, that changes the arrival photo. It does not change the assignment.

This Citation is here for component recovery, cataloging, and the next stage of its working life.

Cockpit of an aircraft in a hangar, showing the glass canopy.

Citation 500

Cessna 500 Citation Parts Still Have An Audience

Early Citations occupy an interesting place in the fleet.

They are mature aircraft.

That also means operators and maintenance shops supporting them are working with systems and components that have been in service for decades.

As platforms age, parts sourcing rarely gets easier.

Certain original components become harder to find. Aircraft-specific hardware becomes more valuable simply because fewer donor sources enter the market. Keeping an older business jet flying often becomes less about finding a part and more about finding the right part with the identification and traceability needed to make a useful purchasing decision.

That is where another Cessna 500 entering BAS disassembly becomes valuable.

One complete aircraft stops flying.

A long list of individual components gets the opportunity to keep working.

One Airplane Started A Very Long Citation Story

The Cessna 500 was not the fastest business jet of its generation.

That was never really the point.

It introduced a different way of thinking about the light jet: turbine capability without turning every flight into an exercise in runway consumption and pilot workload.

Cessna refined that idea into the Citation I.

Then the Citation I/SP.

Then the Citation II.

And the Citation name kept going.

This particular 500 is done adding hours to that story from the sky. Its last trip to BAS involved a trailer instead of a flight plan, and the wings had already been removed before it reached the turbine shop.

Now the mission changes.

As this Cessna 500 Citation moves through BAS disassembly, useful components will begin moving back into circulation for the operators and maintenance shops keeping early Citations working.

The airplane that helped start the Citation family has one more job to do.

This time, it is doing it one part at a time.