Business jets

This category is for the manufacturers of business jets. The cabin fitted inside one belongs in cabin and interiors, the shop that installs a head of state interior belongs in completions, and the operator flying the aircraft for you is a service, not a supplier of the airframe. The line worth knowing before you shortlist runs through the rulebook rather than the brochure.

The certification basis is not the same across the class

A light jet with nineteen seats or fewer and a maximum certificated takeoff weight of 19,000 pounds or less can be certificated in the normal category under Part 23, which now sets airplane certification levels by seating configuration and works against accepted means of compliance rather than a single prescriptive path.² A larger jet is a transport category airplane certificated under Part 25.¹ Ask which part your candidate was certificated to and at which amendment level. The answer predicts what the airplane must demonstrate, how a future change is approved, and how much of a modification programme you will be paying for when you want something the original design did not carry.

How you will operate it changes what you should buy

An aircraft flown for compensation or hire under a Part 135 certificate is inside the rules that govern commuter and on demand operations, and those rules reach the people the certificate holder uses, including for maintenance, preventive maintenance and alteration.³ That matters at purchase. Equipment that is optional for a private owner may be required for the operation you intend, the maintenance programme may be the operator's rather than the manufacturer's, and an aircraft that has spent its life in charter carries a different record than one that has not. Decide the operating rule first and specify the aircraft against it.

Changes after delivery are somebody's certificate

Almost everything a business jet owner wants later is a major change to type design: an interior, connectivity, a winglet, an avionics upgrade. A person who does not hold the type certificate and introduces a major change must apply for a supplemental type certificate, and the holder of that STC has the privilege of obtaining approval for installation on certificated aircraft.⁴ The subpart also puts a duty on STC holders to give written permission where an alteration relies on their approval.⁴ So ask, for every upgrade in the sales pitch: who holds the approval, is it an FAA approval or a foreign one, is it approved on your exact serial number, and what does the installer pay the STC holder.

Where the record can be checked

Certification basis and design approvals are public, and so is the operating rule your aircraft will fly under. What the public record does not carry is condition, damage history, or the quality of the last pre-buy inspection. Those come from a physical inspection and from logbooks read by somebody who works for you.

Questions that sort sellers

Ask for the certification basis and amendment level in writing. Ask which programme covers the engines, what it costs per hour, and whether it transfers on sale. Ask which installed modifications are STCs, whose they are, and whether the paperwork is on board. Ask what the aircraft will need in the first two years of your intended operation, priced.

The companies below are listed on public facts, each with its source linked.