New and Upcoming Business Aircraft

Business aviation is roaring back from the pandemic. Fractional ownership companies, including market leader NetJets, are reporting record-high flight activity. The used market has been described as a “feeding frenzy” by Jason Zilberbrand, president of the aircraft valuation service Vref. And major airframers such as Bombardier, Gulfstream, and Textron are all reporting strong sales. On recent investor conference calls, the CEOs of these companies spoke effusively about market conditions. 

"I must confess that we also beat our own expectations rather handsomely," said Phebe Novakovic, chairman and CEO of Gulfstream parent General Dynamics. “More people are looking to acquire aircraft than we've seen in quite some time," said Textron CEO Scott Donnelly. Bombardier, which divested itself of everything except its business jet unit over the last two years, witnessed “growth in business jet revenues, margin expansion and significantly improved cash performance” in 2021’s first quarter, according to CEO Eric Martel.

As business aviation climbs back to normal, no shortage of choices awaits aircraft buyers. Here’s a look at a half dozen of the most noteworthy jets, turboprops, and helicopters that are relatively new to the market as well as an equal number that should become available over the next few years.

NEW TO MARKET

BOMBARDIER GLOBAL 7500 

Type: large-cabin, long-range jet  |  Passengers: 14  |  Range: 7,700 nm (8 passengers)  |  Price: $75 million

The Bombardier Global 7500 uses the same fuselage cross section as its legacy predecessors (six feet, three inches tall and eight feet, two inches wide) but stretches it by 11 feet to provide 2,637 cubic feet of cabin space. Virtually everything else about the aircraft is new, including the larger cabin windows and proprietary Nuage passenger seats. 

Also new are the GE Aviation Passport engines, which are based on the guts of the high-efficiency CFM Leap models being developed for latest-generation Airbuses and Boeings. Among the technologies incorporated into the engines is a 52-inch titanium “blisk,” a single forging of the fan blades and disk that saves weight and reduces vibration.

The 7500 also features full fly-by-wire flight controls; a new, thin, high-speed wing; and the Bombardier Global Vision flight deck. The latter is based on Collins Pro Line Fusion avionics, with side-stick pilot controls and the latest displays and safety features. Top speed is Mach 0.925.

The hyper-quiet cabin can be divided into three or four zones. You can equip the forward galley with multiple ovens, including a double convection/microwave and a convection/steam model. The redesigned crew rest area is larger than the ones on earlier models. The aft lav can be fitted with a steam shower, and you can access the capacious 195-cubic-foot baggage hold from the cabin at any altitude. The 7500 comes standard with Bombardier’s Wave satcom (the Honeywell JetWave system that runs on Inmarsat’s Ka-band satellite network).

 

CESSNA CITATION LONGITUDE 

Type: super-midsize jet  |  Passengers: 8–12  |  Range: 3,500 nm (4 passengers)  |  Price: $26.9 million 

Cessna’s long-awaited entrant into the crowded super-midsize derby received FAA type certification in September 2020. Textron Aviation is positioning the Longitude as a superior value proposition regarding both acquisition and life cycle—a main reason it eschews expensive systems like full fly-by-wire flight controls. (It has limited fly by wire for the rudder, spoilers, and brakes (“brake by wire”).

The Longitude features the Garmin G5000 flat-panel touchscreen-controller avionics system (similar to the avionics in the new midsize Citation Latitude) with optional head-up display and enhanced vision system, a fast cruise speed of 483 knots, and a full-fuel payload of 1,600 pounds. The aircraft will be equipped with the LinxUs system to provide real-time maintenance monitoring and solutions, including when it is airborne. It also has more user-friendly maintenance access ports than past models.

The aircraft shares the midsize Citation Latitude’s flat-floor cabin cross section—six feet tall and more than six feet wide—making it the narrowest in class. A variety of configurations will be available for the 25-foot-long cabin, with passenger seating for up to 12, although eight to nine will be typical; a full forward galley; and an aft lav with vacuum flushing toilet. The 112-cubic-foot baggage compartment will be accessible in flight. 

The stock galley features a sink with potable water, plus ice drawers and ample stowage; but items such as convection and microwave ovens are extra-cost options. Natural light throughout the cabin comes from 14 large windows. A wireless cabin-management system that controls the LED lighting also delivers a menu of information/entertainment choices, such as SiriusXM and moving maps. You can operate the system via onboard touchscreens, controllers, or smart devices (with a downloaded app). Gogo Avance L5 connectivity is standard.

 

HONDAJET ELITE S

Type: light jet  |  Passengers: 5–6  |  Range: 1,432 nm  |  Price: $5.4 million

The latest upgraded HondaJet, the Elite S, was announced in May. It offers a 200-pound increase in maximum takeoff weight, flight deck improvements, better nosewheel steering, and more available paint colors. The weight increase allows you to carry one extra passenger or stretch the aircraft’s range by 120 nautical miles. 

In the flight deck, new avionics features reduce pilot workload and get you to your destination faster and safer in the form of FAA data comm and aircraft communications, addressing, and reporting system (ACARS) capabilities added to the Garmin G3000 avionics suite. Data comm allows pilots to basically text message air traffic controllers for clearances or en route services—a handy option to have in crowded airspace or congested airports where the radio frequencies can become so busy that you can wait a long time to get a word in. ACARS at supported airports enables digital receipt of airport information, weather, departure clearances, flight plan uploading, messaging, and automatic position reporting. 

A new nosewheel advanced steering augmentation system reduces pilot workload, according to Honda, by helping to keep the aircraft on the runway centerline during the landing rollout, particularly during adverse weather. Think strong crosswinds in rain, ice, or snow. The system uses new control logic in the nosewheel steering to detect yaw rate—that uncomfortable side-to-side or fishtailing motion—and automatically correct for it. 

 

BEECHCRAFT KING AIR 360/360ER 

Type: twin turboprop  |  Passengers: 9-10/13-14  |  Range: 1,806/2,692 nm  |  Price: $7.9/$8.795 million 

Deliveries began late last year of the most recent iteration of Textron Aviation’s big turboprop—both the standard and extended-range (ER) versions. Improvements include autothrottles, a digital pressurization system, and a redesigned cabin. The ThrustSense autothrottles from Innovative Solutions & Support reduce pilot workload by managing engine power from takeoff to landing, while the digital pressurization system automatically adjusts cabin pressurization during climb and descent. Cabin altitude is now a comfortable 5,960 feet while the 360 cruises at 27,000 feet. 

The redesigned cabin comes in five new color schemes: lava saddle, new pewter, latte, buttercream, and alpaca. It features new seats; more refined cabinetry, partitions, and side ledges; higher worktables; LED lighting; lower profile air and light components; new switches; and power outlets and USB charging stations. The cabin measures 57 inches tall, 54 inches wide, and 19 feet, six inches long, and while you can configure it for more passengers, it comfortably seats eight in executive configuration. 

 

DAHER TBM 940 

Type: single turboprop  |  Passengers: 4-5  |  Range: 1,730 nm  |  Price: $4.37 million 

The TBM 940 offers 300-plus-knot cruise speed while burning just 50 gallons of fuel per hour. The manufacturer continues to add refinements and capabilities to this fast, pressurized single-engine turboprop, whose production roots date back to the 1980s. 

Since last year, the aircraft has come standard with the HomeSafe one-button emergency landing system. Based on the Garmin Autoland technology, the system automatically guides the aircraft to a safe landing in the event of pilot incapacitation by integrating weather, traffic, terrain, fuel, range, and airport information. An autothrottle system and automatic deicing are also standard. The deice provides airframe, propeller, and windshield deicing and triggers the inertial particle separator to prevent engine icing. 

As most TBMs are operated single-pilot, Daher’s e-copilot technology, available on the earlier TBM 930 and the current-production 910, employs guardrails built into the Garmin autopilot to maintain flight within the aircraft’s design envelope, using pitch and bank-angle inputs to protect against excessive bank angles, speed departures, and hypoxia incapacitation; when cabin altitude exceeds 11,500 feet, the emergency descent mode automatically activates.

Beginning last year, TBM models have been available with a choice of colors, leathers, and other materials; an optional extended palette offers 40 more colors. The interiors have additional cupholders and a quick-change storage unit that replaces the left-side intermediate seat to offer more space for carry-on items. 

 

AIRBUS H160 MEDIUM TWIN 

Type: turbine helicopter  |  Passengers: 4–8 (executive)  |  Range: 475 nm  |  Price: $14 million 

The Airbus Helicopters H160 introduces a variety of technologies, including “Blue Edge” active tracking main rotor blades in a five-blade system with a double sweep design that reduces noise and improves ride smoothness. The canted Fenestron tailrotor further decreases the H160’s noise signature. The Fenestron and the biplane horizontal stabilizer on the tailboom also combine to improve lift. 

New Safran Arrano engines offer 10 to 15 percent improved fuel consumption. The engines (1,300 shaft horsepower each) are designed to cut fuel consumption in all phases of flight and help propel the H160 to a maximum cruise speed of 150 knots and a service ceiling of 20,000 feet. Airbus Helicopters maintains that the Arranos will have lower maintenance costs than other engines in their class. 

The Helionix avionics system, with four large displays, uses architecture that’s already flying on other Airbus twins, including the H135, H145, and H175. The avionics couple to a four-axis autopilot. Other advanced avionics features include traffic and weather advisories, terrain avoidance, and a synthetic-vision system. Airbus decided to skip a pricey fly-by-wire flight-control system and to make rotor-blade deicing an option. 

 

COMING SOON

DASSAULT FALCON 10X 

Type: large-cabin, long-range jet  |  Passengers: 12–18  |  Range: 7,500 nm  |  Price: $75 million 

Dassault expects the 7,500-nautical-mile (at Mach 0.85) Falcon 10X to enter service in 2025. The twinjet pushes the design envelope not just in terms of size but also design and technology. 

Dassault says the 10X will feature the most advanced avionics and the tallest and widest cabin in its class, and it calls the model “the largest and most capable purpose-built business jet.” Compared with offerings from its bizjet peer group, the cabin of the 10X will be at least eight inches wider and five inches taller. It’s six feet, eight inches tall; nine feet, one inch wide; and 53 feet, 10 inches long, yielding 2,780 cubic feet of cabin space. The larger tube also accommodates a more capacious forward lav and a galley big enough for scratch cooking. Humidity levels can be set, and a new air filtration system delivers what the airframer says is “100 percent pure air.” Cabin altitude at 41,000 feet is just 3,000 feet. 

The 10X features a new, all-carbon fiber, highly swept wing with integrated winglets and a clever flap and leading-edge slat design, as well as a pair of Rolls-Royce Pearl engines bolted onto the back. The Pearls deliver more than 18,000 pounds of thrust each and incorporate new design features that make them cleaner and more efficient. 

Up front, the digital touchscreen “next-generation” flight deck—based on the Honeywell Primus Epic system—features full fly-by-wire controls, automatic flight envelope, and “recovery” protections. It also offers the “FalconEye” system, which combines enhanced and synthetic vision and a dual head-up display that allows either pilot to fly—and land—without referencing the instrument panel, a particularly useful thing to have when visibility is limited. The flight deck is also extremely comfortable, allowing the pilots to take turns completely reclining their seats to the near-lie-flat position for rest during the cruise portion of long flights. 

 

GULFSTREAM G700 

Type: large-cabin, long-range jet  |  Passengers: 13–19  |  Range: 7,500 nm  |  

Price: $75 million 

Gulfstream unveiled its new G700 flagship in 2019 and expects it to enter service in 2022. Five test aircraft are already flying. 

The G700 builds on the success of its G650 and G650ER predecessors. Its long legs, increased capabilities, and comfort are derived from engines, curved winglets, avionics, flight controls, a flight deck, a cabin, and seating employed by its smaller G500 and G600 stablemates. 

Like the cabins in the G650 series, the one in the G700 provides a sanctuary of understated elegance. The new cabin is 10 feet longer, though, for a total length of nearly 57 feet—a mere three feet shorter than a regulation bowling lane—and can be carved into as many as five distinct living zones that can be configured to seat from 13 to 19. (On the really long hauls, you can take only eight passengers and four crew.) 

While the G700 offers many cabin layouts and seemingly endless finer details, what makes it a true lux long-hauler is the available “Grand Suite” in the aft fuselage. It can be equipped with a curved-edge, queen-size bed opposite a full-size dresser. The adjacent aft lav features two windows, a stand-up closet, a large vanity, and an optional stand-up shower. The lav also provides in-flight access to the pressurized, 195-cubic-foot baggage hold, which can convey 2,500 pounds.

Gulfstream has also addressed the historical bugaboo of bizjet cabins: seat comfort. While the seats on the G650 are more than adequate, the airframer has enhanced the ones on the G700 to cope with passenger ergonomics on long flights with new styling, articulating back panels, recessed controls, accent lighting, and a menu of cover fabrics, materials, and pattern choices. The G700 seats won a 2020 design award from the Yacht Interior Society. 

Power comes from a pair of Rolls-Royce Pearl 700 engines that each deliver 18,250 pounds of thrust. The Pearls are improved derivatives of the BR725 engines on the G650 series and are cleaner and more efficient. They provide 8 percent more thrust while consuming 3.5 percent less fuel and meet or exceed international standards for noise and nitrous-oxide emissions. 

 

DASSAULT FALCON 6X 

Type: large-cabin jet  |  Passengers: 16  |  Range: 5,500 nm  |  Price: $47 million 

Dassault’s large-cabin Falcon 6X could start deliveries as early as next year. Test aircraft are already flying. The 6X is powered by a pair of Pratt & Whitney PW812D engines (13,500 pounds of thrust each) and features the latest version of the Honeywell Epic-based EASy III avionics with full digital fly-by-wire flight controls. 

The new wing is designed to mitigate turbulence and is equipped with flaperons, leading-edge slats, and trailing-edge flaps. The flaperons save weight, improve control, and smooth out turbulence by combining flaps and ailerons into a single control surface: flaps deploy to increase lift at low speeds while ailerons regulate bank and roll. The new wing provides good high- and low-speed performance; its leading-edge slats and trailing-edge flaps combine to lower takeoff and approach speeds—up to 10 knots slower than those of comparable bizjets. At maximum takeoff weight, the Falcon needs a balanced field length of as little as 5,480 feet. It can also access airports requiring steep approaches such as London City. 

Like the 10X, the 6X will offer a capacious passenger experience, albeit with slightly smaller dimensions, with a cabin that measures 78 inches tall, 102 inches wide, and 40.4 feet long. The cabin can accommodate up to 16 passengers in three lounge areas. Compared with earlier Falcons, the 6X’s aisle is five inches wider. Baggage is accommodated in a 155-cubic-foot compartment inside the pressurized vessel, and there’s also a 76-cubic-foot unpressurized compartment. 

 

CESSNA DENALI 

Type: turboprop single  |  Passengers: 6–10  |  Range: 1,600 nm  |  Price: $4.8 million 

The Denali is Cessna’s answer to Pilatus’s phenomenally successful PC-12. The aircraft features a 53-by-59-inch rear cargo door (slightly larger than the door on the PC-12) and a digital pressurization system that maintains a 6,130-foot cabin altitude to 31,000 feet. Options include an externally serviceable belted lavatory with pocket door enclosure in the aft of the cabin.

The cabin incorporates large windows, LED lighting, a refreshment cabinet, and an in-flight-accessible baggage compartment. The interior is designed to be easily and quickly converted between passenger and cargo configurations. The cabin features smooth, clean lines; curved side rails; robust sidewall tables; and attractive single seats with arms that retract into the backs, creating a more spacious feeling. The company said it applied lessons learned from its midsize Latitude jet to the cabin of the Denali, which is more like what you’d expect to find in a private jet than in a turboprop. 

The Denali’s stylish flight deck will be equipped with the Garmin G3000 touchscreen-controller avionics suite and will offer high-resolution multifunction displays. Pilots will also benefit from such features as synthetic vision, weather radar, an advanced terrain awareness warning system, and automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) capabilities.

The aircraft will be powered by a 1,300-shp advanced Catalyst turboprop engine from GE Aviation. It will feature full authority digital engine controls (fadec) and single-lever power and propeller control—making it much simpler to operate as any engine/propeller combination can be, and also dramatically cutting pilot workload. 

 

BELL 525 

Type: super-medium twin helicopter  |  Passengers: 8–12 (executive)  |  Range: 580 nm  |  Price: not available

Certification for the Bell 525 could come later this year. The helicopter is the most ambitious project to emerge from Bell since it started making V-22 “Osprey” tilt rotors with Boeing for the U.S. military in the 1980s.

Entry to the 525’s 4.5-foot-tall cabin is through a pair of hinged doors between the flight deck and the forward cabin or through two large aft sliding doors. Passengers enjoy 88 square feet of floor space and a 128-cubic-foot baggage hold—bigger than what you’ll find on most corporate jets. Indeed, this is the largest civil helicopter that Bell has ever built. It has a range of 580 nautical miles and an all-composite, five-blade main rotor system with a diameter of 54.5 feet.

The 525 is comparatively fast with a top speed of 160 knots. It’s aerodynamically slick and features fly-by-wire controls and touchscreen-controller Garmin G5000H avionics. Gone are the traditional cyclic sticks between the pilots’ legs. The flight deck has sidestick controls and a decidedly futuristic feel. The pilots’ seats swivel into position for ease of egress. Ahead of them is a low-slung digital instrument panel and an enormous field of Plexiglas that affords superb visibility over the nose and down to the ground. Bell calls the 525’s flight deck ARC Horizon—for Awareness Reactive Control. It thinks faster than a human and automatically does things to keep pilots and their passengers out of harm’s way. 

 

LEONARDO AW09 

Type: turbine single helicopter  |  Passengers: 5–7  |  Range: 430 nm  |  Price: $3.5  million (estimated) 

Kopter’s long-struggling efforts to develop a big turbine single with a light-twin-sized cabin appear headed for daylight now that the company has been acquired by the Italian defense-industrial conglomerate Leonardo, a company with long helicopter manufacturing experience and, more importantly, deep pockets. A representative prototype is in flight test with more aircraft to follow.

The helicopter once known as the Marenco Swisscopter SKYe SH09 has now been renamed the AW09. The big single is designed to fly a variety of missions: passengers, patients, and cargo can be loaded through two ample side fuselage sliding doors or two enormous rear clamshell doors. The AW09 also features a five-blade main rotor that promises to deliver reduced vibration at high speeds, a ducted tailrotor that will lessen its external noise signature, and a full suite of modern digital avionics. The Honeywell HTS900-2 turboshaft engine (1,020 shaft horsepower) offers the promise of excellent high/hot performance. It will be fitted with full authority digital engine controls (fadec) and requires less maintenance than comparable engines.