private jet sales

The idea is you own it, but fundamentally you outsource the flight department and you don't share the aircraft, says Raburn. "We're seeing a huge level of interest from people who are saying ‘we want to buy your airplane – how do we do it?' Yet they don't want to be flying it or maintaining it, or have to go out and find a pilot." Raburn adds: "We are talking to a lot of people and fixed-base operators around the country who are seeing the same thing. I think it's going to be a big, big business. It's not fractional, and it's not ownership – it's the evolution of a new kind of aircraft management."
Weather has also been a factor in delaying the progress of Cessna's Citation Mustang flight tests in Wichita, Kansas, which began with the maiden flight of the prototype on 23 April. The entry-level aircraft, which almost everyone but Cessna describes as a VLJ, underwent an unusually long first flight lasting 2h 21min, during which stability and control were assessed, as well as cycling of the landing gear, flaps and speedbrakes. "The first flight was well ahead of schedule," says Mustang project engineer Jon Carr. "The third quarter was the target for that."