The term
“business aircraft” means different things to different people. To an
automobile magnate in New England, it is a luxurious new Learjet parked at an airport near home to
simplify travel to a far-flung realm of dealerships. For a syndicated New York
radio talk-show host, it equates to the “fractional ownership” of a Cessna Citation X to share the substantial
operating expenses with others in exchange for the occasional use of a sleek
private jet. For a Texas politician, it adds up to a twin-engine Piper Navaho owned by a campaign organization to
allow easy access to a widely scattered constituency.
There are some 5000 airfields in the U.S., but only 500 offer
scheduled passenger service. It is the ability of a personal or
corporate aircraft to reach the thousands of airfields—as well as
customers and business operations—with no scheduled service that makes
business flying such a phenomenon. Also, business planes allow
executives to maintain tight schedules without delays that often
accompany airline travel. Business aircraft include thousands of
single-engine Mooney, Cessna, Piper, Beechcraft, and other designs as
well as thousands more twin light planes and many types of jets. After
World War II, improved radios and modern navigational aids for general
planes provided invaluable reliability for business flying at night and
in different types of weather.
The origins of business flying can be traced back to the late 1920s,
using open-cockpit biplanes as well as enclosed cabin designs from Stinson, Fairchild and others.
Planes like the distinctive Beech Model 17 “Staggerwing,”
first flown in 1932, set the standard for high-performance private airplanes.
Custom-built by hand, each Staggerwing was outfitted with a luxurious cabin trimmed
in leather and mohair and carried up to five passengers in comfort.
Beech’s Model 18
Twin Beech, introduced in 1937, was one of
the first aircraft specifically designed for the transportation of business
executives. Capable of carrying eight or nine passengers, the Twin Beech
quickly became a favorite with small companies operating on a limited budget.
The Twin Beech would be manufactured continuously for 32 years (until 1969),
with more than 7,000 built.
The ancestor of one of today’s elite business aircraft families,
the Gulfstream I (originally built by Grumman), first flew in 1958 and quickly gained a reputation as the “Rolls Royce” of business aviation;
in fact, the small airliner-sized Gulfstream was powered by twin Rolls-Royce Dart turboprop
engines. Despite its $1-million price tag (in 1958 dollars), the straight-wing
Gulfstream I quickly and quietly gained a significant share of the business
aircraft market. Improved performance and a 50 percent increase in range was
delivered by the swept-wing Gulfstream II, powered by a pair of Rolls-Royce
Spey engines, beginning in 1964.
Mention the phrase “business jet” to an average person and one
word immediately pops into mind: Lear. Since its first flight in 1963, William
P. Lear Sr.’s innovative aircraft, built to replicate the performance and
amenities of a commercial airliner, has been tantamount with executive business
travel.
The Learjet 23 became the first small jet aircraft to enter mass
production as well as the first to be developed and financed by a single
individual. Chemical and Industrial Corporation of Cincinnati, Ohio, took
delivery of the first production Learjet on October 13, 1964, one year after
its initial flight. The improved Learjet 24 (the 150th Learjet
built) made its debut in March 1966, and two months later, became the first
business jet to circumnavigate the globe, taking just four days to complete the
journey. Stretched turbofan
versions of the Learjet 25, dubbed the Learjet 35/36, became the company’s
bestseller, and golfer Arnold Palmer flew a Learjet 36 on an around-the-world
goodwill tour in 1976.
Targeted at the twin-engine business aircraft market, Piper
introduced its PA-31 Navaho in 1964 to complement its existing twin-engine line
of aircraft which, at that time, included the PA-23 Apache, PA-23-250/235
Aztec, and the PA-30 Twin Comanche. The six- or eight-passenger Navaho was
produced in several versions (standard, commuter or executive) with different
seating arrangements and cabin interiors and featured passenger-friendly
features such as luggage storage compartments fitted into the engine nacelles
(the housing of an
externally mounted aircraft engine).
Also in 1964,
Beech introduced the Model 90 King Air, an eight-passenger, twin-engine turboprop
designed
for passenger comfort. The various King Air models became a staple for
corporate flight departments, eventually capturing more than 90 percent of the
market share among aircraft in its class.
In 1983, the
Beech Model 2000 Starship, designed by noted experimental aircraft designer
Burt Rutan (who went on to design the Voyager)
was a bold innovation in aviation design, merging a lightweight composite
airframe with twin rear pusher-propellers,
a forward-swept wing, and
an innovative variable-sweep canard (a horizontal stabilizer placed in front of
the wings) that changed shape to adjust for aerodynamic changes during flight.
Designed to be competitive in speed with small business jets, the Starship
proved to be ahead of its time. A commercial failure, only 53 aircraft were
manufactured before production was halted—the Model 2000’s $5 million price
tag was economically prohibitive and ultimately more costly than its
jet-powered competitors.
True
intercontinental flying range of 4,174 miles (6,717 kilometers) coupled with
fuel-efficient winglets (which reduced drag) marked the introduction of the
Gulfstream III in 1979. This trend in drag-reducing winglets was matched by the
Learjet 55 Longhorn, also introduced in 1979, and continued by the more
advanced Learjet 60, which made its debut in 1990.
The unveiling of
the Gulfstream IV, which first flew in 1985, took the business jet industry by
storm. Designed to provide cost-effective, long-range transportation to
business executives and celebrities alike, the 19-passenger Gulfstream IV
improved upon its predecessor’s design by incorporating a longer fuselage and a
wing with 30 percent fewer moving parts while almost doubling the maximum range
to 7,223 miles (11,624 kilometers).
Custom-built to a customer’s specifications, the $24-million
Gulfstream IV features oak furnishings, leather sofas, and a soundproof
interior while a variant, the IV-SP, delivers even longer flight range.
Gulfstream chairman and pilot Allen Paulson (also one of the world’s top
breeders of thoroughbred race horses) set numerous world records for
circumnavigating the globe (in both east and west directions) in a Gulfstream
IV, including a January 1988 eastbound around-the-world trip in just under 37
hours—8.5 hours faster than the previous record held by a Boeing 747SP jumbo jet!
Expanding beyond its traditional base of turboprop aircraft, Beech
acquired the production rights to the Japanese Mitsubishi Diamond business jet
in December 1985. Shifting production to its Wichita, Kansas, manufacturing
plant, Beech’s Model 400/400A Beechjet achieved success as a reliable and
cost-effective business jet. One of its principal competitors, Cessna’s
12-passenger Citation X, made its debut in December 1993 and immediately
established itself as one of the fastest production aircraft in the world,
flying at Mach 0.92 (about 600 miles or 966 kilometers per hour).
Business aircraft have continuously evolved to meet the increasing
market demands for speed and comfort and the selling prices have increased just
as rapidly. While a Beech “Staggerwing” could be purchased for around $15,000
in 1932, some of today’s ultimate business aircraft—the Gulfstream V,
Bombardier’s Global Express, Boeing’s Business Jet and the Airbus A319CJ—cost more than
$30-million apiece. The adage from the popular movie Field of Dreams:
“If you build it, they will come,” could easily be adopted as the motto of the
business aircraft industry as well.
—Roger Guillemette
Sources and Additional Reading:
Aircraft of the World. Pittsburgh, Pa.:
International Masters Publishers, 1998
Christy, Joe. The Learjet. Blue Ridge Summit, Pa.: Tab Books, 1979.
Jackson,
Robert. Civil Aircraft. New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 2001.
Pattillo, Donald M. A History in the
Making – 80 Turbulent Years in the American General Aviation Industry. New
York: McGraw-Hill, 1998.
Pelletier,
A.J. Beech
Aircraft & Their Predecessors. New York: Putnam, 1995.
Phillips,
Edward H. Beechcraft: Pursuit of Perfection. A History of Beechcraft
Airplanes. Eagan, Minn.: Flying Books, 1992.
Rodengen,
Jeffery L. The Legend of Gulfstream. Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.: Write Stuff
Syndicate, 2000.
Rowe, Frank Joseph and Craig Miner, Borne on the South Wind: A
Century of Kansas Aviation. Wichita, KS: Wichita Eagle Publishing
Company, 1994.
Simpson,
Rod, compiler. Piper Aircraft. Images of Aviation. Stroud,
Gloucestershire, England: Tempus Publishing Ltd., 2000.
Online Sources:
Bleck,
Max E. Starship History, Aviation Services.com. http://www.aviatorservices.com/starship_history.htm
Gulfstream. http://www.gulfstream.com/
National Aviation Hall of Fame Enshrinee
Page – Walter Herschel Beech. http://www.nationalaviation.org/enshrinee/beechwalter.html
Raytheon Aircraft Company, Historical
Overview. http://www.raytheonaircraft.com/company/historical/
Learjet
Company History. http://www.gretemangroup.com/learjet/history.html
National Aviation Hall of Fame Enshrinee
Page – William Powell Lear, Sr. http://www.nationalaviation.org/enshrinee/lear.html
Zimmerman,
John. “The Learjet: Bill Lear’s Greatest Idea.” http://www.aircraftbuyer.com/featured/learjet.htm
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Educational Organization
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Standard Designation (where
applicable
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Content of Standard
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International Technology Education Association
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Standard 4
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Students will develop an understanding of the cultural, social,
economic, and political effects of technology.
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International Technology Education Association
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Standard 6
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Students will develop an understanding of the role of society in the
development and use of technology.
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International Technology Education Association
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Standard 8
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Students will develop an understanding of the attributes of design.
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