The introduction of the Learjet 23 in 1963 created the first modern business jet as we know it today. Since then, a total of 22,000 private jets have gone on to be produced in around 100 different models.
On average, this means that each model was produced just shy of 220 times; not a bad run for an aircraft that carries an often-eyewatering multimillion dollar price tag.
As with most things in life, however, some private jets are more popular than others, with some being produced double, triple or even quadruple the average whilst others have fallen short of it considerably. So what are the most popular private jets in our skies?
For the purposes of this article, we are defining “most popular” as “most built” including both aircraft that have ceased production and that are still in production.
Embraer Phenom 300 – 600
Gulfstream G550 – 600
Hawker 800 – 650
In the early 1980’s, British Aerospace began work on a heavily updated successor to the BAe 125-700, then the most recent derivative of the immensely successful BAe 125 family (more on them later). The result was the so-called BAe 125-800.
Introduced into service in 1983, the -800 sold quite well in comparison to its predecessors; British Aerospace recorded its 200th -800 sale in late 1988 – a company record at the time for a civil aircraft.
In 1994, however, British Aerospace sold its Corporate Jet division to Raytheon who merged it with their Beech Aircraft division to form Raytheon Aircraft.
With this purchase, Raytheon also bought the rights to the Hawker Aircraft name, a legend of British aviation history, which had been merged into Hawker Siddeley, one of the two predecessors of British Aerospace, in 1963.
In honor of this once-great aircraft manufacturer, Raytheon renamed the BAe 125-800 the Hawker 800 and embarked on a mission of improving the jet for a variety of customers, mostly civil and gained the Hawker 800 its first military customer
The release of these numerous variants, which included a shorter fuselage variant, extended range variant and faster cruising speed variant among others, worked as Raytheon intended, with the company receiving numerous orders before selling Raytheon Aircraft in 2007.
All in all, when production of the Hawker 800 ceased in 2013 in the wake of Hawker Beechcraft’s (the successor of Raytheon Aircraft) demise, a total of 650 Hawker 800s had been produced between 1983 and 2013.
Learjet 35 – 738
Rockwell Sabreliner – 800
Bombardier Global Express – 816
Cessna Citation XLS – 1000
Cessna Citation II – 1,184
By most accounts, Cessna was pretty late to the private jet party. Where rivals like Beechcraft and Learjet were putting out their first private
Bombardier Challenger 600 – 1066
BAe 125 – 1,720
Cessna CitationJet – 2000
Which is your favorite private jet? Tell me in the comments!
Featured image courtesy of Jez via Flickr.