A short briefing every morning: what’s new in the world of private jets, plus an aircraft, a priced route, a fact and a story from the archive.
Las Vegas-based Thrive Aviation showed the first two aircraft for its new fractional program ahead of NBAA-BACE 2026. The fleet starts with the HA-420 HondaJet and Bombardier Challenger 3500, with Honda Aircraft-linked Arulean Air backing the aircraft purchases.
Read the brief →Aviation Week’s new 10-year forecast calls for more than 9,600 business jet deliveries from 2027 through 2036. That would average about 960 jets a year, up 36% from the 2015–2026 average.
Read the brief →Unveiled in February 2024 and FAA certified within weeks, the M700 Fury replaced the M600/SLS with a 700-shp PT6A-52 and a five-blade propeller, raising maximum cruise to 301 knots and cutting takeoff distance over a 50 ft obstacle to 1,994 ft. It retains the Garmin G3000 and HALO Autoland, the first production example was the 1,000th PA-46 built, and unpaved-runway approval followed in August 2024. Range 1,852 nm, 4 seats, about $4,100,000 new and roughly $680 an hour in fuel and maintenance.
Full profile →Frank Sinatra took delivery of one of the first Learjet 23s in 1965 and reportedly lent it to Elvis Presley to elope to Las Vegas in 1967. (Robb Report; GE Aerospace history)
More numbers →8,826 nautical miles, about 20h 35m in a large jet, roughly $267,112–$417,234 one-way for four — about $85,543 a seat.
Price this route →Bombardier delivered the first Global 7500 in December 2018 after Transport Canada certification that September. With 7,700 nautical miles of range and a four-zone cabin, it took the range crown from Gulfstream, and in 2019 one flew Sydney to Detroit, 8,225 nautical miles, the longest flight ever by a purpose-built business jet. Bombardier reached 200 deliveries in 2024. The 7500's four-zone cabin, with a full-size bed and a galley the size of a kitchen, set the standard that the G700 answered six years later.
The full timeline →Travolta, a type-rated airline-class pilot, bought an ex-Qantas 707 in 1998, painted it in 1960s Qantas colours and flew it on a 2002 world tour as the airline's ambassador. He pledged the jet to Australia's HARS museum in 2017, and it was dismantled and shipped there in 2026. He also flies a Bombardier Challenger, a Falcon 900 and an Eclipse very light jet.
The story →PLAUSIBLE — Manufacturers make a real case: newer jets pressurise the cabin to a lower 'altitude' (as low as 2,800–4,800 ft versus 6,000–8,000 ft on most airliners), pump in 100% fresh air, keep humidity higher and let you lie flat. Those things demonstrably reduce fatigue and dehydration. Whether they reduce *jet lag* — which is a circadian-rhythm problem caused by crossing time zones — is much less certain.
The evidence →