While airliners and propeller driven general aviation types are quite popular in Microsoft Flight Simulator, the business jet collection is still a little on the smaller side though it is certainly growing and Flight FX have just given fans of that type of flying a new option with the release of their Cessna Citation X. Here is my full review of the jet!

A bit of history

Manufactured by Cessna from 1996 until 2018, the Cessna Citation X is a twelve seat business jet with some serious performance credentials. Two Rolls Royce AE3007C engines propel the aircraft and 12 people up to Mach 0.92 and give it the potential to cruise up at 51,000 feet. Impressive numbers to say the least.

Several features are notable on the Citation X. First, and perhaps most obviously, is the wing sweep. The jet’s 37 degrees of sweepback make it the most of any business jet and second only to the 747’s 37.5 degrees. The wing also passes under the main fuselage which improves the interior space and reportedly makes manufacturing the airplane easier to accomplish. The large diameter Rolls Royce engines are relatively high bypass relative to the size of airplane giving it the performance and efficiency needed. But their size does really stand out.

It’s safe to say that the Citation X looks fast and is fast! That gives it some serious fun potential in flight sims and its no doubt why Laminar Research made it one of their default X-Plane 12 aircraft and why Flight FX have developed one for Microsoft Flight Simulator.

This variant represents the first iteration, the Citation X and not the later Citation X+. The curved wingtips are a feature added late in the original’s production run before development switched over to the Citation X+ which improved speed to Mach 0.935 and introduced the Garmin 5000 suite into the airplane. We’re flying the original with this release!

Visuals and sounds

Flight FX are another one of those developer teams that have been busy honing their skills and making some visually and aurally impressive aircraft. Their previous release, their P.180, is an airplane that I put a lot of time into recently and it was visually impressive in nearly every regard and that also applies here. I think the Citation X is actually their best work showing a clear series of improvements from types like the HJet through the Vision Jet, P.180 and now the Citation X. The top of the airplane is quite clean, as you’d expect from a business jet, but there’s a suitable level of scratches and wear and tear along the bottom. Its subtle but well done. Everywhere from the landing gear to the subtle curves of the winglets are impressive and stand up well under even the closest scrutiny. The developers report using the detail mapping technology that MSFS 2024 supports to help achieve this effect. It works!

The interior cabin is superbly detailed in the cockpit and cabin areas. The cockpit is relatively clean but with appropriate levels of materials work and a few scratches here and there. The knobs and controls are beautifully done and the glass panels are impressive too – both the CRT and LCD versions which have their own visual appearance. Backlighting and other lighting features are also excellent.

The cabin area has also been given a lot of attention. Everything from the seats to the trim to the cabinetry are well detailed. The drawers open, the wine storage is fully stocked, and optional meals are nicely detailed too. You can even go back into the lavatory at the back of the airplane with doors that open and close. Animations are smooth and well presented even in the cabin area. My entirely un-serious complaint? You can’t open the toilet and flush it! More seriously, everything else is really impressive. Even the passengers that fill the seats back there are decent enough.

Over to the audio work where once again I have to gush. Flight FX got real world recordings for this one and it shows. The sounds in the cabin are unique to the aircraft, there’s no obvious looping cuts, the sounds are chunky and satisfying (especially the engines on takeoff) and various knobs and switches around the cabin all have their own sounds. You can hear the flaps moving though the effect is more of a subtle rushing of wind than louder actuators. Reportedly, this is accurate as the team intended to record flap sounds but none could be heard inside the cabin.

Features

Flight FX have packed the aircraft with a ton of features that include their own custom Proline 2000 avionics, electrical, hydraulic, deicing, and pressurization systems, and a detailed flight model. The model and its performance profile are subtly different between the two variants on offer – one with winglets and one without.

There are several options to customize your Citation X experience. One of the most impactful is the ability to add a retrofitted auto throttle system to the airplane. This is a real world retrofit and its a highly functional one with full coupling to the rest of the avionics. Or you can fly it without the auto throttle which leaves you on the hook to make periodic adjustments to the aircraft as various external variables change during takeoff, climb, cruise and landing.

Another option lets you choose either LCD or CRT style displays with the visuals of the displays changing commensurately. The LCDs are obviously more modern and have a flat even appearance while the CRT screens have that subtle curve and present as slightly smaller in overall draw area.

The aircraft incorporates an EFB which sports a similar experience to that of the one that I reviewed on the company’s Piaggio P.180. The tablet gives you even more functionality with SimBrief import support, Navigraph suport, state saving (Cold and Dark, Ready to Taxi, Ready to Takeoff), ground system management (doors, coverings, external power) as well as a few fun features like the ability to set different options for the food service.

One other feature is the pause at top of descent feature which, until recently, has been the purview of the longhaul widebody airliners in the sim (the PMDG 777 and iniBuilds A350). Now its here in this jet too and it makes sense as the Citation X has the potential for some long flights too. I’ve tested the system on a few flights and its been reliable!

There are a few things that you won’t find here. The aircraft is not setup with failure modeling in mind. There’s also no long term persistence or maintenance features. The electrical systems, while modeled, don’t have modeled circuits so you can’t cut off a system on the breaker panel. These aren’t huge problems, especially when we talk about the price, but merely items of note.

Serious fun to be had, learning needed

This is a fun one to be sure. The high altitude and speed performance alone is a draw with long haul flights going past more quickly thanks to that Mach 0.92 speed. To get there, you do have to really learn the Citation X. In the real world, its a two pilot airplane and you can see why managing all of the systems quickly and competently does involve that second person. In the sim, we’re frequently flying airliners and business jets solo and so the workload is a bit higher.

The Citation X is a little more intimidating than some of the other business jets I’ve flown in sim. Types like the Phenom 100 and 300 and Cessna Citation Longitude are more modern and the avionics do a lot more of the work. The Citation has more controls arrayed around the cockpit and that takes a bit of getting used to. Even relative to some of the airliners I’ve been flying recently, there is quite a bit going on. Fortunately, Flight FX have done a very good manual and a training video – both which helped me get to flying the type.

Flight FX have also added a few extra features to help alleviate some of the cockpit control issues. Heading, altitude, and speed dials are located down on the center pedestal near the throttle. Not as ideal for virtual pilots. So ideally you can either bind those controls or you can make use of the clickspots the developers put on the front panel around three screws. They are labeled if you get up close to them.

Once your through some of those challenges though, the Citation X is quite a bit of fun to fly. Its fast, it handles relatively well, but it does demand your attention especially on landing with those swept wings as the aircraft can start to sink quickly if you aren’t stabilized with appropriate power.

Bugs, issues and performance

I’ve personally experienced few issues with the Citation X from Flight FX. Perhaps the only one that I can note is that the weather radar control knobs appear to be fully animated but also appear stuck in place. Furthermore the weather radar doesn’t seem to show the full resolution of the storms ahead and often seem to be pointing at just the tops.

There are also no GPWS callouts sounding as you’re coming in for a landing. Its a known issue acknowledged by the team. The aircraft is capable of performing holds, however, some users have noted that some more specific types of holds are not currently available. Others have pointed out that the go-around functionality in the FMC is not currently available.

Browsing through the Flight FX Discord, I have seen a few folks noting some problems with the tablet EFB appearing on the outside of the airplane while also using Parallel 42’s Chaseplane. A weird combination there.

Various other bugs and issues may crop up depending on hardware and software configurations and it looks like there may be a few, however, the Discord group has been quick to try and troubleshoot them and I suspect Flight FX will continue to be responsive to fixes as needed.

Though I don’t typically do any sort of performance measurements, I do often provide a general overview of the kinds of performance I’m getting with different aircraft and I’m happy to say that the Citation X is performing very well. It’s not quite as smooth as the company’s P.180 but then there’s a little more complexity here and that probably accounts for the small discrepancy between the two. It’s still running more smoothly than most airliners I test. This all on MSFS 2024’s Sim Update 2. I have high hopes for some improvements with Sim Update 3.

Final thoughts

The Citation X is the best business jet currently available for Microsoft Flight Simulator. The airplane has excellent visuals and sounds, solid modeling, great handling, and is an overall superb presentation. This is an aircraft that has the complexity of many airliner projects and manages to compete well with them with a couple of caveats.

It is clear that this aircraft was developed with a specific price in mind. It absolutely has a great selection of features, some good options to modify the airplane into a few different realistic configurations, and the overall simulation depth is excellent. It has been priced at $29.99 USD which is a great price for what is on offer. It does, however, mean that you’ll miss out on a few things like a maintenance system, state saving between flights, reliability and failures modeling, and some electrical system modeling. For some, these are essential features, however, for the middle of the market and at the price these are reasonable things to leave off the feature list. It’s a great A to B flying airplane.

Flight FX have been building a serious reputation for themselves and each project that they have been released has been better than the last. The Citation X represents a significant achievement for the developer bringing in more or less the full complexity of a business jet (or airliner) with great quality levels. Incidentally, one of the company’s next projects is am Embraer ERJ 145 so this is a great stepping stone and a confidence inspiring product that tells me that they’ve got that one well in hand.

The aircraft is a Marketplace exclusive and is available as a single purchase for both MSFS 2020 and 2024. You can buy it for $29.99 USD or whatever the marketplace has converted that to in your own local currency.

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