Search Results for: Citation X

All-new design airplanes from startup companies are often called “paper airplanes” because the company has no track record of producing any kind of airplane. So when you design a paper airplane, you should shoot for the moon, and Stratos, a new would-be jet maker in Bend, Oregon, has with its Model 714 personal jet. For […]

In March Gulfstream announced development of a new model, the 650, the first clean sheet Gulfstream business jet since the G-II laid the foundation for the most successful line of large cabin business jets in the 1960s. The 650 is a response to Gulfstream customers who want more cabin space, longer range and more cruise […]

Never have I regretted spending money on airplanes. The costs for upgrades and maintenance may have been prodigious, but they always felt good. The airplane was either improved or restored. I never questioned these investments. Same for hangar, insurance and fuel. I wanted the airplane protected indoors, I wanted to protect the people flying in […]

It’s hot on the ramp. The sun, blocked earlier by a thin overcast, now has an unobstructed view and it’s doing its thing with a good deal of enthusiasm. There’s a slight breeze and that helps, but the baggage handlers in my group are sweltering as we form a “bucket brigade” to unload bags from […]

Insurance companies and safety experts-self appointed and otherwise-are constantly worrying that owner-flown jets…particularly the coming crop of new light jets, can be flown at 41,000 feet by a single pilot who may not be very experienced. What’s up with that? What’s so special about 41,000 feet? The answer is that FL 410 is the traditional […]

With the coming age of very light jets (or whatever you want to call them) just around the corner, the question has been repeatedly raised but never really answered: How will pilots fare when transitioning from piston-powered airplanes to this new breed of little jets? It’s a much more complicated question than it at first […]

In the mercilessly cruel financial world of small airplane companies, and the new companies that plan to build airplanes, bankruptcy may offer the only chance of success. Nobody can, you see, sell enough airplanes quickly enough to recover the development costs of starting a company and designing and certifying an airplane. That means somebody needs […]

“Hey, Dick, whatever happened to your Mustang purchase?” I hear this all the time. And, after reporting in the January issue that I’d plunked down $10,000 at the NBAA Convention as a down payment on Cessna’s new jet, I got a burst of mail, not all of it supportive. So I thought I’d tell you […]

Fractionals is the informal name for companies that operate shared ownership business jets, a service that is rapidly growing. An owner purchases a fraction, typically one-sixteenth or more, of an airplane and is entitled to fly a set amount of hours in that airplane or any of its companions in the fractional fleet. The fractional […]

Part 3 of the FLYING Finance series on stepping up to turbine aircraft.