jets

The amazing little jet required ‘The Right Stuff’ and a lot more.

A visionary engineer and a jet fighter spawned the birth of the business jet.

Little known or remembered today, the Boeing B-47 Stratojet paved the way for the modern jet airliner. You might consider its history the next time you take an airline flight. As you look out the terminal window at jet-powered rides, note the elegant profile, swept wings, and sleek tail surfaces of the aircraft on the […]

Sun ’n Fun Aerospace Expo—known as spring break for pilots—is just a few weeks away. This year, the annual event in Lakeland, Florida, is celebrating its 50th anniversary. If you plan on being part of the fun, there’s a lot to do and see April 9-14. Victory’s Arsenal Theatre It’s not Sun ’n Fun without […]

The supersonic jet trainer is blessed with movie star looks.

“Paris is always a good idea.” Though Audrey Hepburn didn’t actually deliver that line in her 1954 film Sabrina, it’s widely attributed to her, and having lived in Paris for three years, I couldn’t agree more. To this day, I never need an excuse to go. I’d happily hop the pond to La Ville-Lumière for […]

A hilarious meme a few years back was an airport sign board that read, “When one door closes, another one opens. Other than that, it’s a pretty good Cessna.” It’s funny because it’s true. Airplane doors were not there at the inception. The first planes didn’t need no stinking pilot enclosures and, hence, didn’t need […]

Like so many of the jets featured here, the Cirrus Jet, renamed the SF-50 Vision jet more than a decade ago, was a huge undertaking for Cirrus Aircraft, which launched the project in 2007. The plane, an all-carbon-fiber, six-seven seater with an odd, bug-like look to it that many find kind of cool, would be, […]

One of our favorite planes, period, the SubSonex embraces its mission, to be a fun jet that you don’t have to be rich to own. The cost of the kit, including the quick-build option, the PBS TJ-100 engine, and a bunch of bells and whistles still comes in at around $140,000. You do then indeed […]

The Cessna Mustang is a very light jet, despite the company’s protestations—Cessna, now part of Textron Aviation, apparently thought the VLJ tag diminished the plane’s real-jet cred. We disagree, and we agree that the Mustang is a real jet, but its cancellation in 2017 came after the company had built 479 of the single-pilot jets. […]