Sixty years of the business jet
From a Swiss fighter that became the Learjet to a jet that cruises at Mach 0.94: the milestones, the machines and the people.
Beech 18 first flight: the executive twin is born
Long before jets, the Beechcraft Model 18 gave companies and wealthy individuals a practical way to fly executives point to point. First flown on 15 January 1937 in Wichita, the twin-engine 'Twin Beech' stayed in production until 1969 with more than 9,000 built, serving as airliner, trainer and corporate shuttle. It established Wichita as the capital of business aviation and set the template of a small cabin, two pilots and a schedule dictated by the passenger, not the airline.
Morane-Saulnier MS.760 Paris: the first jet you could buy for business
France's little four-seat MS.760 Paris flew on 29 July 1954 and was marketed as a business jet as well as a military trainer. Passengers sat under a fighter-style sliding canopy with no aisle, which limited its appeal, but it proved that a small, privately developed jet aircraft could exist at all. Roughly 150 were built, and a handful still fly with enthusiasts today.
Lockheed JetStar first flight: the first purpose-built business jet
On 4 September 1957 the Lockheed JetStar lifted off from Edwards Air Force Base, becoming the first purpose-built business jet to reach production. Originally designed for a US Air Force utility-transport requirement, it grew into a four-engined ten-seater that served presidents, the USAF and buyers such as Elvis Presley, whose 'Hound Dog II' JetStar sits at Graceland. Around 200 were built.
Gulfstream I: Grumman leaves the Navy for the boardroom
Warplane maker Grumman flew the Gulfstream I on 14 August 1958, a twin turboprop built specifically for corporate travel with a stand-up cabin, pressurisation and transcontinental range. It cost about $1 million, sold around 200 units and gave the Gulfstream name its association with executive comfort. Its success convinced Grumman to build a jet successor and eventually to spin off Gulfstream Aerospace.
Hawker Siddeley HS.125 first flight
Britain's de Havilland DH.125, first flown on 13 August 1962, became one of the longest-lived business jets in history. Renamed the HS.125 and later the Hawker 800 and 900 series under British Aerospace, Raytheon and Hawker Beechcraft, the mid-size design stayed in production for over 50 years with roughly 1,700 built before the line closed in 2013. Today the type still flies in large numbers, with the US Air Force operating it as the C-29 and many airframes now in their fourth decade.
Textron Aviation Hawker 800XP specs →Learjet 23 first flight: speed becomes the selling point
Bill Lear, the inventor behind the car radio and the 8-track tape, flew the Learjet 23 from Wichita on 7 October 1963. Its wing was adapted from a cancelled Swiss fighter, the FFA P-16, and the result was a six-seat rocket that climbed and cruised like a military jet. Frank Sinatra bought one in 1965, and 'Learjet' became shorthand for private jet in the popular imagination.
Dassault Mystère 20 flies; Pan Am orders 40
The Mystère 20, later the Falcon 20, made its first flight on 4 May 1963 with Charles Lindbergh advising Pan Am, which promptly ordered 40 as its Business Jets Division. Dassault, until then a fighter builder, had found a second business. A decade later a young Fred Smith chose the Falcon 20 to launch Federal Express, and the first FedEx package flew on a Falcon on 17 April 1973.
King Air and Executive Jet Aviation both arrive
Beechcraft flew the King Air on 20 January 1964, starting a turboprop line that is still in production six decades later with more than 7,600 delivered. The same year, a group of retired Air Force officers including Paul Tibbets, the Enola Gay pilot, founded Executive Jet Aviation in Columbus, Ohio, operating Learjets for charter. EJA would later be reborn as NetJets.
Textron Aviation King Air 360 specs →Gulfstream II: the first intercontinental business jet
Grumman's Gulfstream II flew on 2 October 1966 with two Rolls-Royce Spey engines and a cabin large enough to stand in. It could cross the Atlantic nonstop, and in 1968 one became the first business jet to fly to Europe. NASA later used modified GIIs as Shuttle Training Aircraft to teach astronauts to land the orbiter. The GII established the Gulfstream formula, a big oval-windowed cabin behind a swept wing, that every later model from the GIV to the G800 has followed.
Cessna Citation certified: the 'Slowtation' that conquered the market
Cessna's first jet, the Citation 500, was certified in September 1971 after a 1969 first flight. Rivals mocked its modest speed as the 'Slowtation', but its low operating costs, docile handling and ability to use short runways brought jets to companies that had flown turboprops. The family has since passed 8,000 deliveries, the most of any business jet line. Cessna sweetened the deal by training the buyer's pilots and offering the first jet aimed at owner-pilots, an approach the CJ series continues today.
Textron Aviation Citation M2 Gen2 specs →NetJets launches fractional ownership
Richard Santulli, a former Goldman Sachs mathematician who had bought Executive Jet Aviation in 1984, used his models of aircraft utilisation to launch the NetJets programme in 1986. Customers bought a share of a specific aircraft, as small as one-sixteenth, and received guaranteed access to the fleet with a few hours' notice. The idea created a whole new tier of private flyers and copycats worldwide.
Citation X certified: Mach 0.92 and a Collier Trophy
The Cessna Citation X entered service in 1996 as the fastest civil aircraft short of Concorde, cruising at Mach 0.92 on swept wings and Rolls-Royce AE 3007 engines. Golfer Arnold Palmer, a longtime Cessna customer, took the first delivery. It won the 1996 Collier Trophy, and the later Citation X+ nudged the maximum to Mach 0.935. Its swept 37-degree wing and area-ruled fuselage were airliner technology in a ten-seat package, and the type stayed in production until 2018.
Textron Aviation Citation X+ specs →Global Express first flight; Gulfstream V enters service
Bombardier's Global Express flew on 13 October 1996, while Gulfstream's GV, first flown in November 1995, was certified in 1997 and won that year's Collier Trophy. Together they created the ultra-long-range category: 6,000-plus nautical miles nonstop, enough for New York to Tokyo. The rivalry between the two families has defined the top of the market ever since. Both aircraft introduced glass cockpits, eight-hour-plus missions with crew rest areas and price tags above $35 million, numbers that seemed extraordinary at the time.
Gulfstream Aerospace GV specs →Warren Buffett buys NetJets for $725 million
Berkshire Hathaway bought Executive Jet Aviation and its NetJets programme in 1998 for $725 million, half in cash and half in stock. Buffett, who had once dubbed his own jet 'The Indefensible', called fractional ownership the future of business travel. At the time NetJets flew 163 aircraft; by 2025 the fleet exceeded 800. Buffett has said NetJets is one of the few Berkshire businesses he uses himself, and he has flown on its aircraft to every annual meeting since.
Boeing Business Jet and Airbus ACJ: airliners go private
Boeing and General Electric launched the BBJ, a 737-700 fuselage on the stronger 737-800 wing with extra belly tanks, and delivered the first in 1999. Airbus answered with the ACJ, a corporate A319. Suddenly a jet could carry a bedroom, shower and conference table across an ocean, and Gulf royals, heads of state and a few celebrities lined up. More than 250 BBJ-family aircraft have since been delivered, and the 737 MAX-based BBJ 737-7 and 737-8 continue the line into the 2030s.
Boeing Business Jets BBJ 737-7 (MAX 7) specs →Eclipse 500 certified: the very light jet boom
The Eclipse 500 received FAA certification in 2006 and won the Collier Trophy as the first very light jet, promising a $1 million twin-jet that would spawn air-taxi networks. Thousands of orders poured in, but production costs and the 2008 financial crisis bankrupted Eclipse Aviation in 2008 after about 260 aircraft. The design survives as the Eclipse 550, and the VLJ idea lives on in the HondaJet and Cirrus Vision Jet.
Eclipse Aerospace Eclipse 550 specs →Falcon 7X: the first fly-by-wire business jet
Dassault's three-engined Falcon 7X entered service in 2007 as the first business jet with a digital fly-by-wire flight-control system, borrowed from the company's Rafale fighter. The computers smooth turbulence and protect the flight envelope, and the 7X's steep-approach approval later made it a regular at London City Airport. More than 300 have been delivered. The 7X also popularised the three-engine layout for long overwater legs, and its 8X successor stretched the cabin and range in 2016.
Dassault Aviation Falcon 7X specs →Financial crisis: deliveries collapse, and the 'jet shaming' era begins
When the CEOs of Detroit's three automakers flew separate corporate jets to Washington in November 2008 to ask Congress for bailout money, the resulting outrage made the private jet a political symbol. GAMA-tracked business jet deliveries fell from a record 1,313 in 2008 to 870 in 2009 and did not recover for over a decade, while used-jet prices dropped by a third.
Tragedy in Roswell during G650 testing
On 2 April 2011 a Gulfstream G650 test aircraft crashed during a single-engine takeoff test at Roswell, New Mexico, killing four Gulfstream employees. The NTSB found the wing stalled in ground effect at a lower angle than predicted and criticised the pace of the test programme. The accident reshaped flight-test safety practices across the industry. Certification slipped by roughly a year while Gulfstream redesigned its approach to field-performance testing, and the company memorialised the crew at its Savannah headquarters.
Gulfstream Aerospace G650ER specs →Gulfstream G650 certified: a new benchmark
The G650 earned FAA certification on 7 September 2012 and immediately became the jet to have: Mach 0.925, 7,000 nautical miles, a cabin with 16 oversized oval windows and a waiting list that pushed used examples above list price. The 7,500-nm G650ER followed in 2014, the family won the Collier Trophy, and it set more than 120 city-pair speed records before production ended in 2025.
Gulfstream Aerospace G650ER specs →HondaJet certified after three decades of research
Honda received FAA type certification for the HA-420 HondaJet on 8 December 2015, capping a project that began as a research programme in 1986. Its engines sit on pylons above the wing, freeing cabin space and cutting drag, and Honda built its own engine with GE. Within a few years it was the best-selling very light jet. The engines are built by GE Honda Aero Engines, a joint venture formed in 2004, and Honda assembles the jets in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Honda Aircraft Company HondaJet Elite II specs →Global 7500 enters service as the longest-range business jet
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.
Bombardier Global 7500 specs →COVID-19 grounds the world, then floods private aviation with newcomers
Business jet flying fell by three quarters in April 2020, yet within months it recovered faster than airlines as travellers with means sought to avoid crowded terminals. Charter and fractional companies reported record numbers of first-time customers, and the used-jet inventory fell to historic lows. The surge would carry into the busiest year on record in 2021. Airports like Teterboro and Van Nuys reported record months by late 2020, and jet-card companies that had never sold out did so for the first time.
Busiest year ever: 3.3 million business jet flights
WingX counted 3.3 million business jet flights in 2021, seven percent more than 2019 and the highest ever recorded, with US leisure travel driving the boom. Operators struggled to find pilots and parts, and waiting lists for new jets stretched to two years. The same year, supersonic hopeful Aerion shut down after failing to raise capital, despite an $11 billion backlog.
The jet-tracking wars: ElonJet, Twitter and LVMH
Student Jack Sweeney's automated accounts tracking the jets of Elon Musk, Taylor Swift and others became a global story in 2022. After buying Twitter, Musk suspended @ElonJet in December and changed the platform's rules to ban real-time location sharing. In France, tracking accounts prompted LVMH to sell its Global 7500 and politicians to propose private-jet taxes. The debate also drove some owners to enrol in the FAA's privacy programmes that mask registrations from public feeds, without stopping tracking by dedicated hobbyists.
Gulfstream Aerospace G650ER specs →First transatlantic flight on 100 percent sustainable aviation fuel
On 19 November 2023 a Gulfstream G600 flew from Savannah to Farnborough burning only sustainable aviation fuel made from waste fats, the first transatlantic crossing on 100 percent SAF. Business aviation has pledged net-zero by 2050, but SAF still made up well under one percent of jet fuel worldwide, and most manufacturers now demonstrate on blends of 30 to 100 percent.
Gulfstream Aerospace G600 specs →Gulfstream G700 certified: the biggest purpose-built cabin
The G700 received FAA certification on 29 March 2024 after delays tied to new engine certification rules. Its cabin offers up to five living areas, 20 windows and a 6-foot-3-inch ceiling, and its Rolls-Royce Pearl 700 engines give 7,750 nautical miles at Mach 0.85. Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg were all reported among early customers. It was the first Gulfstream to be certified under new FAA engine-emission rules, a process that pushed deliveries from 2022 into 2024.
Gulfstream Aerospace G700 specs →XB-1 goes supersonic: the first civil supersonic flight since Concorde
On 28 January 2025 Boom Supersonic's XB-1 demonstrator reached Mach 1.122 over the Mojave Desert, the first privately developed civil jet to break the sound barrier and the first civil supersonic flight since Concorde retired in 2003. Boom is using the data for its Overture airliner, while business-jet makers remain cautious after Aerion's collapse in 2021. XB-1 was retired after a 13-flight campaign, its mission complete, and Boom said the data would feed directly into Overture's engine and airframe design.
G800 certified: 8,200 nautical miles
Gulfstream's G800 earned FAA and EASA certification on 16 April 2025, with range confirmed at 8,200 nautical miles at Mach 0.85, 200 more than projected. The first delivery followed within weeks. It effectively replaced the G650ER, whose last airframe was delivered that summer after roughly 590 units. Gulfstream said the G800 was already the fastest-selling large jet in its history, with early deliveries going to fractional operators and existing G650 owners keen to trade up. It gives buyers 200 nautical miles more range than the G700 in a slightly shorter cabin.
Gulfstream Aerospace G800 specs →Global 8000 enters service as the fastest civil jet since Concorde
Bombardier delivered the first Global 8000 on 8 December 2025 after Transport Canada certification in November. It is the first business jet approved to cruise at Mach 0.94 and reached Mach 0.95 in testing, with 8,000 nautical miles of range and a cabin altitude of just 2,691 feet at 41,000 feet. The first customer was Canadian businessman Patrick Dovigi. Bombardier rebuilt the Global 7500 wing and engines for the higher speed, and the jet set several city-pair records within weeks of delivery.
Bombardier Global 8000 specs →Record year: 854 business jets delivered, $35.7 billion in billings
GAMA's year-end report showed 854 business jet deliveries in 2025, up 11.8 percent, and total general-aviation billings of $35.7 billion, the highest ever. NetJets alone took roughly 100 aircraft. The figures capped a five-year expansion that began with the pandemic and was sustained by fractional programmes and new models from every manufacturer. Gulfstream, Bombardier and Textron each reported backlogs stretching beyond two years, and Dassault and Embraer posted their best years in over a decade. Analysts expect the strong cycle to continue through 2027.
Air taxis approach certification: Joby and Archer
In March 2026 Joby Aviation completed Stage 4 of the FAA's five-stage type certification for its electric S4 air taxi, and in May Archer closed Phase 3 for its Midnight aircraft. Both plan launches in Dubai and US cities, and business-aviation operators see eVTOLs as a link between city centres and jet terminals. Final certificates were still pending as of mid-2026.
Falcon 10X first flight
Dassault's largest-ever business jet, the Falcon 10X, made its maiden flight from Bordeaux-Mérignac on 19 June 2026, flying for two and a half hours and climbing to 40,000 feet on Rolls-Royce Pearl 10X engines. With the widest cabin in its class and a 7,500-nautical-mile range, it is aimed squarely at the G800 and Global 8000, with service entry planned for late 2027.
Dassault Aviation Falcon 10X specs →An interim Air Force One from Qatar
On 1 July 2026 the VC-25B Bridge, a Boeing 747-8 donated by Qatar's royal flight in 2025, entered service as an interim presidential aircraft while Boeing's long-delayed VC-25Bs slipped to 2028 and 2029. The transfer, reported at around $400 million in value, drew scrutiny in Congress and became one of the most talked-about VIP airliners in years. The jet had been delivered to Qatar in 2012 and refitted with secure communications and defensive systems at a Texas facility before joining the presidential airlift wing.