Hi Pace.
Don't be fooled into thinking that ALL limitations are structural, performance, controllability or aerodynamic related: sometimes the limitation can be set simply by how far they were required/bothered to test it.
F'rinstance, one of the aircraft I am involved with (Phenom 100) has a max altitude limit for flaps extended of (if I remember correctly) 12,000' YD off and 15,000' YD on. Having spent considerable time trying rationalise this we were informed that these were simply the altitudes to which the certification pilots successfully flew before putting a tick in the box - which raises the question "why not tick the box at the same altitude"? There was no answer, just a shoulder shrug.
Pure speculation of course, but maybe for your Citation they flew the aircraft gear-down to max operating altitude before putting the tick in the box but for your Airbus they put the tick in the box at 25,000', having no requirement to test further. Is anyone LIKELY to want to fly an Airbus gear-down at, say, 38,000'?
Clearly, I don't KNOW the answer to your query, but just offer this explanation as a reasonable possibility which appears to have not been considered so far.
Wiggy.
Last edited by wiggywoo; 2nd Jan 2014 at 18:20.
Reason: Typo