Buy used Jet

Benefits and benefits of purchasing a used business jet

Whilst new is always better, there are good buying opportunities for used turbojets that allow businesses to switch to planes without delays. Those new planes are beautiful. They are very economical in consumption, have a much better cruising distance than early generations corporate planes and are sound compatible to level III. Regarding the real power, however, many of the new planes are no better than my 1964 Lear 24, 1978 Gulfstream IISP or 1967 Boeing 727-100 and in some cases are lagging behind.

Surely there are many good things to buy new corporate jet planes - if you can buy them, why wouldn't you buy new ones? Older planes are usually bought because they are within an operator's budgets and allow a corporation to get on a commercial jet immediately without any loss of service.

Look at the differences between a Lear 24, Gulfstream II or Boeing 727 from the 1960s and a Lear 31, Gulfstream IVSP or Boeing BBJ from 1999. There are far fewer differences in styling and power than between a 1968 car and a recent annual one. Corporate jets and aircrafts have stagnated somewhat.

But the 1960s planes that fly today would all be in a pile of junk today if someone had found a way to duplicate the plane's velocity. Older airplanes would have been so much reduced in value with the arrival of ultrasonic commercial airplanes that they would have become antiquated and dismantled for junk.

However, the only significant distinction between older and newer corporate jets is in progressive, quiet and fuel-efficient power units. Those are great product line benefits that we can benefit from thanks to significant enhancements in motor technologies. We are also administering a new GV that offers its proprietor, Allen Paulsen, a 6500 nm non-stop reach.

Customers like their new planes and are able to buy the best that the corporate jet industry has to offer. What's more, our customers enjoy their new planes. Earlier planes with the same power can be purchased for a small part of the cost of their newer alternative. Compromise is that the older planes consume more gas and do not have the reach of the newer ones.

There is no significant distinction between new and older aeroplanes for a DOC, but the costs of equity are an important part. Assuming the costs of equity at about 7%, the gap between a $1 million Lear 25 and a $6 million Lear 31, both of which have the same coverage and power, is so great that 580 hours of Lear 25 operating (at a $600/h DOC) could be paid from the differential of the costs of equity alone.

Similarly, if one compares a GII of $6 million with a GIV SP of $28 million, the differential in costs of equity - about $1,540,000,000 - would be enough for over 1,000 hours of GII overhauls. You will make a few additional refueling stopovers with the older planes, but the cruising level, ascent, cruising rate and dependability of these planes, which were more than 30 years apart, will be the same.

You can, however, buy a considerable amount of transport for a comparable good deal in relation to equity investments, and you do not have to accept any loss of value if you buy second-hand. The upgrade of an older jets is often a very useful upgrade for the operator. The EFIS in the latest generations of airplanes is a plus, but you can cost-effectively replicate this front plate front plate in older airplanes.

A regular customer with a 1978 Citation II has built in every possible airplane upgrading system, complete with CFIS, CTAS II and MOVEMENT maps. As early as the 1980s, we were installing the first 5-tube AFIS system ever to be used in a Lear 35 together with an FBMS. All these are amazingly affordable upgrades and they give you the front desk equivalents of a new commercial jet.

A number of reengine programmes have been successfully implemented, dramatically improving the older corporate jet family. You can have new power plants on your Falcon 20 for an $4.1 million capital outlay and almost match the aircraft's mileage. The best guess if you installed more advanced, fuel-efficient motors in your old GII or GIII is that it would almost cost you $10 million, but it would give your GII or GIII the reach and power of a GIV.

Whilst all these reengine programmes extend the cruising distance and improve the refuelling characteristics and provide you with a Stage III plane, there is no simple way to do this. The Aviation Partners Blended Winglet Programme for the GII and BBJ is one of the best modifications currently available. Those progressive widesweep singlets make the greatest improvements in power and reach of any modem I've ever seen without having to change motors.

Whereas improved aerodynamics modalities usually give you a 1 to 2% edge, Aviation Partners singlets give you a 6 to 7% edge. Now new Level II pushkits appear on at least 3 older commercial jet aircraft. There are two Stage III schemes - Stage III Technologies and Really Quiet LLC - nearing Gulfstream II and III certifications, and there is a new Stage III scheme for the 20s Lear line that will cost less than $150,000, but you are losing Reverseer.

I looked at a programme to revise the Lears of the 20s with Williams FJ44 turbo fans and replaced the tip tank with Aviation Partners blended winglets. That would probably be a $2 million change, but in many ways it would almost give you a new plane. In order to be able to compete, it must be a singular test plane and this may be possible.

In my opinion, the removal of the tilting tank and the replacement by a winglet would improve the overall rigidity of the glider and you would have a good chances of getting certified as a soloist. The overhaul of the cabin of an older airplane can make it look like new and you usually get the re-sale value back.

You can do a beautiful renovation of an older Lear for about $50,000 to $80,000. I found very little variation in the dependability and costs of maintaining older airplanes in comparison to newer ones. Used corporate airplanes' hulls are so well constructed that if correctly serviced and not corroded, they will last forever.

A lot of planes that fly today are in the 70,000-80,000 hour class, and correctly serviced company planes last just as long. A thorough pre-purchase is indispensable when purchasing an older airplane. When analysing the servicing record of used aeroplanes one has to be much more cautious. They want to make sure that the airplane has been serviced in a plant or similar facility.

Regarding security, I don't think there is a distinction between an older and a newer one. Wherever you get used to fly an airplane regardless of whether it's an older or a newer airplane, you can always be at home. While jet aeroplanes are highly dependable, they still demand meticulous process and system supervision.

The purchase and operation of an older Jet can be an enormous value for the purchase. It' s uncommon in today's hi-tech environment to be able to buy a 35-year-old and get the same amount of power and dependability as a new 5 to 8x priced one.

But with an airplane equipped, it is possible. These older planes have been getting more expensive lately. for $300,000 or a good GII for $2.5 million. One Lear 24, Lear 25 and a GII will bring you nearer to $600,000, $1 million and $6 million today, but I think older corporate jet fares have dropped for the being.

Featuring the various upgrades on the scene, such as Stage IIIushkits, improved aerodynamics and retrofit capabilities, today's older planes have many more years of service. My assumption is that I will be running my Lear 25s in 10 years, and we will probably be continuing to fly IISP with our Aviation Partners Blended Winglet for another 20 years.

Older airplanes are getting better and better in most cases. All it does is eliminate the need for significant power and velocity enhancements that would be brought about by a new breed of hands-on ultrasonic commercial jet. We have been at the same level of service as Bill Lear launched in the early 1960s for almost 40 years.

Someday - and my forecast is 10 to 15 years - we will fly supersonically.