Picking a name for an airplane, especially the first of its kind, is never easy.
Recently Cirrus Design Corp. bypassed the hassle by naming its entry into the Very Light Jet market simply “the jet.”
Other aircraft manufacturers leaned toward celestial phenomena (Eclipse) or weapons (Javelin).
When Cessna introduced its first business jet in the early 1970s, an advertising agency came up with the name Citation, after the horse that won the Triple Crown in 1948. Company executives thought the horse and the jet had similar qualities, such as exceptional performance, efficiency and appearance.
If the agency had waited until 1973 and still wanted to go with a Triple Crown-inspired moniker, the airplane might have been the Secretariat. Not quite the same cachet.