Air charter is the business of renting an entire aircraft (i.e., chartering ) as opposed to individual aircraft seats (i.e., purchasing a ticket through a traditional airline ).
26-581: The Cessna Citation Mustang is a very light jet that was built by Cessna . Launched at the 2002 NBAA convention, the Model 510 first flew on April 23, 2005. It received its FAA type certification on September 8, 2006, and was first delivered on November 22. Production ended in 2017 after 479 aircraft were built. The 8,645 lb (3,921 kg) maximum take-off weight jet is powered by two Pratt & Whitney Canada PW615F 1,460 lbf (6.5 kN) turbofans , can reach 340 kn (630 km/h), and has
52-460: A microjet , is a category of small business jets that seat four to eight people. VLJs are considered the lightest business jets and are approved for single-pilot operation. The first small jet-powered civil aircraft, the 1950s Morane-Saulnier MS.760 Paris , has been retroactively suggested as being the first VLJ, as it seats four with a single pilot and is smaller than modern VLJs. The production of MS.760 differs from modern business jets in having
78-649: A non-scheduled service. Analogous regulations generally also apply to air ambulance and cargo operators, which are often also ad hoc for-hire services. In the United States, these flights are regulated under FAA Part 135. There are some cases where a charter operator can sell scheduled flights, but only in limited quantities. As of 2021, the FAA had made it a priority to crack down on unauthorised charter flights, according to industry experts. There are several business models which offer air charter services from
104-1277: A portion of the fixed operating costs by sharing use with air charters . Outside of North America, most are exclusively flown by third-party crews. Most of the other half of the fleet is registered in Europe : 23 aircraft in the British Isles , 20 aircraft in Austria , 20 in France , 11 in Germany , six in the Czech Republic , five in Switzerland and four in Italy . In Latin America , Brazil has 31 aircraft, there are 10 in Mexico , three in Argentina , two in Venezuela and one each in Chile , Guatemala , Panama and Paraguay . In
130-493: A range of 1,167 nmi (2,161 km). Launched at the 2002 NBAA convention, the $ 2.4 million Mustang first flew on April 23, 2005. The airplane received full type certification from the Federal Aviation Administration on September 8, 2006. Cessna received FAA certification to fly into "known icing conditions" on November 9, 2006. Cessna delivered the first production LJ on November 22, 2006,
156-451: A sliding canopy for cabin access rather than a door; a six-seat version with an enclosed cabin and a conventional door was canceled after a single prototype was built. Two unbuilt Cessna aircraft of the 1950s and 1960s would have met the definition of a VLJ. The first was the 407, a four-seat civil version of the T-37 jet trainer proposed in 1959; however, the 407 never progressed past
182-496: Is located between the cockpit and cabin. The Embraer Phenom 100 offers a fully enclosed lavatory with a solid door. The 2015 Honda HA-420 HondaJet has a full lavatory at the rear of the aircraft with flushing toilet, full sink and closing door. Air charter Charter – also called air taxi or ad hoc – flights require certification from the associated country's civil aviation authority . The regulations are differentiated from typical commercial/passenger service by offering
208-510: Is located in the forward left section of the aircraft, with an additional emergency exit on the center right section of the fuselage . In its standard configuration, the Mustang has four passenger seats in the aft cabin, a toilet, and seating for two in the cockpit. The airframe is primarily of aluminum alloy construction and has a three- spar wing. Power is provided by two Pratt & Whitney Canada PW615F turbofans mounted in pods on
234-437: The late 2000s recession the air taxi market underperformed expectations, and both Eclipse Aviation and air taxi firm DayJet collapsed. In December 2010, AvWeb's Paul Bertorelli explained that the term very light jet has lost favor in the aviation industry: "Personal jet is the description du jour. You don't hear the term VLJ—very light jet—much anymore and some people in the industry tell me they think it's because that term
260-567: The mockup stage due to insufficient customer interest. The second was the Fanjet 500, which had an MTOW of 9,500 pounds (4,310 kg) and a single pilot as originally envisioned in 1968; however, as the aircraft evolved into the Citation , the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration demanded a second pilot and various design changes, resulting in an MTOW of 10,350 pounds (4,690 kg). Other attempts to create small jet aircraft in this class in
286-874: The 1970s and 1980s were the Gulfstream Aerospace FanJet 1500 and the CMC Leopard . After a flurry of interest in the Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) and air taxi markets in the early 2000s, the VLJ sector underwent significant expansion. Several new designs were produced, such as the Embraer Phenom 100 , the Cessna Citation Mustang , and the Eclipse 500 . However, following
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#1732772168333312-545: The Eclipse 500 has the most deliveries in a single year with 161 in 2008. When these smaller jets were first mooted, there was much interest in the fact that they would not have a lavatory on board, with articles discussing the matter in The New York Times and items on NBC Nightly News . Some manufacturers argued that for short flights of 300 to 500 miles (480 to 800 km) and 40 to 80 minutes' duration,
338-681: The Eclipse 500 in 2006 and the Cirrus Vision SF50 in 2018. VLJs are intended to have lower operating costs than conventional jets, and to be able to operate from runways as short as 3,000 feet (910 m), either for personal use or in point-to-point air taxi service. In the United States , the Small Aircraft Transportation System is aimed at providing air service to areas ignored by airlines . Florida -based air taxi provider DayJet , which on October 3, 2007 began its Eclipse 500 service, planned to operate more than 1,000 of
364-900: The Middle East four are in Turkey , as in Egypt and two are in Israel . Six are in Africa , nine in Australia and five in New Zealand .There are 4 Certified Full Flight Simulators available in the world for this aircraft type:Rome Monterotondo, Italy; Scottsdale, Arizona, USA; Wichita, Kansas, USA; and Farnborough, UK. Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era Related lists Very light jet A very light jet ( VLJ ), entry-level jet or personal jet , previously known as
390-531: The VLJs within five years, and had stated in mid-2007 that it planned to operate 300 Eclipse 500s serving 40 regional airports in the Southeastern United States by the end of 2008. DayJet ceased operations on September 19, 2008. Many models are under development or awaiting certification, while others have failed. Six have so far made deliveries to customers: The Cessna Citation Mustang
416-580: The aft fuselage. The aircraft was built at the Cessna production facility in Independence, Kansas . Like many other light jets, the Mustang is approved for single-pilot operation. Data from Cessna Aircraft Company General characteristics Performance Avionics Half of the fleet is in the U.S. and Canada , mostly operated by firms or individuals owning a single aircraft and typically flown by their owners, with some owners defraying
442-514: The existence of the aircraft and said that Cessna had been considering producing a new model to fill the gap between the Mustang and the Cessna 350 Corvalis , but characterized the test aircraft as a "technology demonstrator" rather than a proof of concept vehicle or a prototype, and would not confirm plans for production. The Mustang is a low-wing , cantilever monoplane with a tapered wing, T-tail , and retractable tricycle gear . One main door
468-457: The lavatory issue was not a problem and air taxi service companies said that it was not a concern for most of their passengers. Despite this, the Eclipse 500 had the option of an electric flush, remove-to-service lavatory with a privacy curtain - at the expense of one passenger seat, and the proposed Adam A700 design had a seven-seat configuration with rear lavatory with a privacy curtain. The Cessna Mustang also has an emergency toilet, but it
494-542: The more-common C/E-525 type rating, which potentially reduces training and crewing costs over the Mustang. A total of 479 examples of the Citation Mustang were produced. In 2018, used 2009-2016 Mustangs were priced at $ 1.85-2.5 million. In 2019, a test aircraft using a modified Mustang fuselage but powered by a single turboprop engine, aircraft registration N350CE , was photographed by a Wichita engineer. A Cessna vice president interviewed by AvWeb confirmed
520-590: The only maintained aircraft are the Cirrus Vision SF50 , which was type certified that year and put into production, and the Stratos 714 , which at the time expected certification in 2019. Single-engine VLJs are expected to compete with single turboprop aircraft. Two VLJs in history have won the Collier Trophy , known as the most prestigious aerospace engineering award in the United States —
546-459: The same day the FAA awarded Cessna with the necessary certification. Dave and Dawn Goode of GOODE Ski Technologies received the first retail delivered Cessna Mustang on April 23, 2007. In 2010, Cessna launched an enhanced edition of the aircraft called the High Sierra , which features higher-quality cabin furnishings and enhanced avionics, including synthetic vision . In 2015, its unit cost
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#1732772168333572-511: The same period in 2009, with light jets suffering the most. In 2020, business jet deliveries slowed again due to the COVID-19 pandemic , with a 20% decrease over the previous year. However, the industry bounced back the following year, in 2021, with a 10% increase over 2020 and a single VLJ delivery more than in 2019. The Cirrus Vision SF50 is the most-delivered VLJ with 514 total from 2016 through 2023 and most-delivered per year since 2018, and
598-515: The traditional charter operator to brokers and jet card programs: Charter aircraft categories include: There are an estimated 15,000 business jets available for charter in the world. The US market is the largest, followed by the European market with growing activity in the Middle East, Asia, and Central America. Some charter airlines have employed other types of jets, including Airbus , Boeing , and McDonnell Douglas mainline airliners such as
624-568: Was US$ 3.35 million. Cessna ended production of the design in May 2017 due to lack of customer demand for the aircraft as a result of competition from the company's own Cessna Citation M2 . The company had been selling an average of 40 Mustangs per year until the M2 was introduced in 2013, and then Mustang sales dropped to just 24 aircraft over the next three years. The M2 is a faster and larger aircraft, but it can operate from similar-length runways and requires
650-517: Was the first production VLJ, first delivered in November 2006, and discontinued in May 2017, and the Cirrus Vision SF50 is the first single-engine production VLJ, beginning deliveries in December 2016. Business jet sales suffered due to the late 2000s recession. The General Aviation Manufacturers Association reported in November 2010 that third quarter business jet sales were down 20.3% over
676-529: Was too tightly coupled to Eclipse, a failure that the remaining players want to, understandably, distance themselves from." Single-engine designs were popular in the mid-2000s, before the Great Recession diminished the market appeal of the category. Most of those projects, which included the Piper Altaire , Diamond D-Jet , Eclipse 400 and VisionAire Vantage , were all shelved. As of 2016,
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