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Private Business Jets: Are they Right for Your Business?
Private business jets are usually of smaller size and specifically designed for transporting groups of business people or wealthy individuals. Private business jets may also be adapted for other roles such as the evacuation of casualties or express parcel deliveries. A few of these jets may even be used by public bodies, government, or the armed forces. Typically, the more formal terms are used by the firms that build, sell, buy, and charter private business jets. Examples of some of the formal terms are corporate jet, executive jet and VIP transport.
Almost all private business jets have rear-mounted engines due to the fact that the wing is too near the ground for the engine to be mounted underneath it. The engines are mounted low in the rear of the jet for specific performance reasons.
Commercial airliners are sometimes converted into private business jets. More often than not, these converted aircraft are used by celebrities with a large entourage or press, or by sports teams. This is a convenient way to fly to a destination quickly and in style.
There are several different types of private business jets as well as categories that these jets fall into. For example, one such category is the very light jet category (VLJ). Private business jets that are associated with this category are generally used by the air taxi industry.
Cessna is a company that is known worldwide for their high quality jets. Cessna developed the Mustang, a six-place twinjet which has available room for two crew members and four passengers and has a current price of $2.55 million US dollars.
Alternatively, there are a number of smaller manufacturers that have designed even cheaper jets such as the Eclipse 500 which has become available for around $1.5 million US dollars. It remains to be seen whether the new jet manufacturers will complete their designs or find the market required to sell their private business jets as the planned low prices. 
Today, there are approximately 11,000 private business jets in the worldwide fleet; a huge majority of these jets are based in the United States or owned by companies in the U.S. The next largest would be the European market, with growing activity in the Middle East, Asia, and Central America. As you can see, this is a fairly large number and it continues to grow with the popularity of air charter travel.
Interestingly enough, since the year 1996, the term “fractional jet” has been used in connection with private business jets that are owned by a conglomerate of companies. Arrangements can be put into place to share the cost of overheads such as the flight crew and maintenance. This is a fantastic benefit for smaller companies that may choose to share ownership of a private business jet.
Production is low-volume and lead times are long, so because of this new orders for private business jets can take two to three years to complete and deliver. This peculiarity fuels a large pre-owned marketplace, with aircraft for immediate availability.
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