Practical, independent writing on buying, owning and flying private.
A Gulfstream burns almost five tonnes of CO2 an hour. Private aviation is a tiny slice of global emissions and a very large slice per passenger. Here are the honest numbers on carbon, sustainable fuel, book-and-claim, and the electric aircraft that will and won't replace jets.
The fastest business jet in service cruises at Mach 0.94, faster than any airliner since Concorde. But the aircraft that owned the speed title for 20 years sold modestly and was quietly retired. Speed, it turns out, is a strange thing to sell.
Airliners top out around 41,000 feet. Business jets routinely go 10,000 feet higher, into air a tenth as dense as sea level. The reasons are weather, traffic, fuel, and a view of the curve of the Earth.