Business jet
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Business jet, private jet or, colloquially, bizjet is a term describing a jet aircraft, usually of smaller size, designed for transporting groups of business people or wealthy individuals. Business jets may be adapted for other roles, such as the evacuation of casualties or express parcel deliveries, and a few may be used by public bodies, governments or the armed forces. The more formal terms of corporate jet, executive jet, VIP transport or business jet tend to be used by the firms that build, sell, buy and charter these aircraft.
[edit] Background
Almost all production business jets, such as General Dynamics' Gulfstream and the Gates Lear Jet (now built by Bombardier), have had two or three engines, though the Jetstar, an early business jet, had four. Advances in engine reliability and power have rendered four-engine designs obsolete, and only Dassault Aviation still builds three-engine models (in the Falcon line). The emerging market for so-called "very light jets" and "personal jets", has seen the introduction (at least on paper) of several single-engine designs as well.
Almost all business jets have rear-mounted engines, because the wing (mounted low for performance reasons) is too near the ground for engines to be slung underneath it.
Airliners are sometimes converted into luxury business jets. Such converted aircraft are often used by celebrities with a large entourage or press corps, or by sports teams, but airliners often face operational restrictions based on runway length or local noise restrictions.
A focus of development is at the low end of the market with small models, many far cheaper than existing business jets. Many of these fall into the very light jet (VLJ) category and are used by the air taxi industry. Cessna has developed the Mustang, a six-place twinjet (2 crew + 4 passengers) available for $2.55 million USD. A number of smaller manufacturers have planned even cheaper jets; the first is the Eclipse 500 which has become available at around 1.5 million USD. It remains to be seen whether the new jet manufacturers will complete their designs, or find the market required to sell their jets at the low prices planned.
There are approximately 11,000 business jets in the worldwide fleet with the vast majority of them based in the United States or owned by US companies. The European market is the next largest, with growing activity in the Middle East, Asia, and Central America. Because new aircraft orders can take two to three years for delivery, there is a large pre-owned marketplace with immediate availability.
Since 1996 the term "fractional jet" has been used in connection with business aircraft owned by a consortium of companies. Costly overheads such as flight crew, hangarage and maintenance can be shared through such arrangements.
In addition to outright new or pre-owned acquisition by aircraft users, new business jets are often purchased using a system of ownership positions. Usually this entails a deposit that reserves a future delivery of the aircraft: a "position" of ownership for a future date, normally three to five years in in advance. Additional deposits are paid as the aircraft nears completion. The future positions can be bought and sold by the owners, with any remaining balances due to the manufacturer. There is an active market in aircraft positions, and during turbulent economic times, these positions are sometimes abandoned, leaving the manufacturer with the deposit funds, but also the need to sell the aircraft position to another buyer.
[edit] Classes
The business jet industry groups the jets into six loosely-defined classes:
- Heavy jets
The most exclusive type of private jet is the heavy jet type, which is designed for the ultimate in large capacity luxury air travel. Aircraft of this class includes:
- Super mid-size jets
The elite class of the business and private jet aircraft are the super mid-size jets that feature wide body cabin space, high altitude, speed, and ultra long range capabilities. These ultra luxurious private jets combine the long range transatlantic capability with the speed and comfort of a wide body, high altitude aircraft. Aircraft of this class include:
- Mid-size jets
These aircraft are suitable for longer range travel such as transcontinental flights and for travel with larger passenger capacity requirements. Aircraft of this class includes:
- Light jets
The light jets have been a staple of the business jet industry since the advent of the Lear Jet in the early 1960s. The light jets provide access to small airports and the speed to be an effective air travel tool. Aircraft of this class includes:
Also known as Microjets or VLJs these are designed to provide air travel, for example, to the more than 5,000 small community airports in the United States. VLJs Jets have a maximum take off weight of not more than 10,000lb. Aircraft of this class include:
Aircraft of this class include:
[edit] See also
- Super Light Jets
- List of very light jets
- Very light jet
- Air Taxi Association
- Air transports of heads of state and government
- Supersonic business jet
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