Small Jets for Big Business

Corporate jets flew onto the market a few years ago at a time when most businessmen were reluctant to buy such expensive gadgets for fear of irritating cost-conscious stockholders. But improvement in corporate profits and the introduction of new and cheaper jets have allayed much of that fear. Many a president now believes that a rakish new jet is just what his company needs for greater mobility and smarter image. Now the executive jet is well on its way to gaining the acceptance already won by its piston-engine counterpart.

The first of the corporate jets -- Lockheed's $1,450,000 JetStar -- has experienced such a sudden sales lift that used JetStars now sell for $150,000 more than new ones because of a 15-month waiting period for delivery; after long-suffering patience, National Steel fort night ago received the 29th JetStar sold by Lockheed to corporate customers. North American Aviation, whose $795,000 Sabreliner followed the JetStar into the market, has sold 25 of the twin-jet planes in the past twelve months. The jet that has attracted the most orders--60 so far--will not even start to be delivered until August. It is Aero Commander's Jet Commander, which sells for $595,000, cruises at 440 m.p.h. and carries as many as seven passengers. The Jet Commander's chief advantage: straight wings that enable it to land and take off on short runways.

The most exciting of the new jets is the sleek Lear Jet (cost: $575,000), which cruises at 530 m.p.h. and can outclimb an F-100 fighter plane to 10,000 ft. Builder William Lear Sr. calls it "the fighting businessman's jet." He has firm orders for 21, hopes to start delivery at the rate of eight monthly by year's end. Among his customers: Rexall, Kroehler and German Steel Baron Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza.

A whole flock of new corporate jets in the under-$1,000,000 class are also beginning to take to the air in Europe. Germany's Hansa 320 last week made its maiden flight, will go into production in early 1965. Italy's PD-808, a joint effort by Piaggio, the maker of the famed Vespa motor scooter, and the Douglas Aircraft Co., will undergo test flights in June. Britain's Hawker Siddeley will deliver its first DH-125 jet to Krupp in August, has orders from 13 more corporate customers.

Production has just begun on France's ten-passenger Mystere 20; Pan American has already ordered 40 of these 530-m.p.h. jets, has an option on 120 more. Pan Am will start receiving the planes in early 1965 and will sell (and sometimes lease) them in the U.S. and Canada. Clearly, Pan American's cagey President Juan Trippe, who has seldom been wrong about travel trends, believes that little jets will play a big role in businessmen's futures.

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