The Reluctant Executive

In Teheran, a salesman from Lockheed Aircraft Corp. is hoping to get the signature of the Shah of Iran on a contract to buy a JetStar corporate jetliner. Indonesia's President Sukarno already owns one. So does Millionaire Harold S. Vanderbilt of Palm Beach and New York. But executive jets are running into stiff sales resistance from the very group for which they were intended: corporate executives. The difficulty is not salesmanship (a demonstration ride can be arranged at the drop of a hat) or a lack of a choice. Eleven planemakers, including four in the U.S., have corporate jets either already on the market or about to be introduced. Despite all the market research about how enthusiastically jets would be received by executives, planemakers are finding few companies willing to spend $300,000 to $1,450,000 to own a jet.

Some companies--including Ford, General Mills, Texaco, Socony Mobile and Owens Corning--have bought executive jets and have found them an impressive status symbol in the business world. But just because they are that, some executives fear to buy them, concerned about the reaction of cost-conscious shareholders. Sales of company jets also suffer from the feeling that jet speed is not essential for most short business trips, and from the preference of many businessmen to fly commercially on longer trips. The fact that most of the 24,000 nonjet corporate aircraft now in service in the U.S. are relatively new also inhibits more jet sales.

Despite the sorry sales record, the planemakers are gamely pushing ahead. Besides Lockheed, corporate jets are being built by North American, Aero Commander and Lear. Britain's entry is the De Havilland DH-125. France's Dassault plans to introduce its twin-jet Mystere 20 in the spring; Hamburger Flugzeugbau is making a six-passenger plane; and Italy's Piaggio, maker of the famed Vespa motor scooter, has teamed up with Douglas Aircraft to build the PD-808, known as the "Vespa Jet."

The Federal Aviation Agency estimates that within the next seven years there is a market for no more than 200 corporate jets in the U.S. Abroad, the market is certain to be smaller still. Since a European planemaker would probably need to sell at least 80 planes to break even and a U.S. planemaker even more, most planemakers stand to take a drubbing unless they can change businessmen's minds.

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