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A Gulfstream 5 has a range of 12,000km. For comparison, a Boeing 787-8 (one of the longest ranged commercial airliners, often used for transpacific travel) has
by txcwpalpha 7y ago
A Gulfstream 5 has a range of 12,000km. For comparison, a Boeing 787-8 (one of the longest ranged commercial airliners, often used for transpacific travel) has a range of about 13,000km.
Even the smaller private jets, such as a Citation, have a range of 6,500km, which is still more than enough to go transatlantic in a single flight, or even US<->Asia in 2 hops. For comparison, a Boeing 757 (often used for smaller US<->Europe and US<->South America flights) has a range of 7,200km.
- JCharante 7y agoYeah I got my dreams crushed by looking into private jets. The distance to go from BOS to HAN is ~13,000km, of which only one of the newer gulfstreams with a range of ~14,000km might be able to do. I guess that's why a lot people still fly business/first class.
- ryanlol 7y agoThat’s a pretty exotic route with zero nonstop business/first class options available.
- magduf 7y agoI wonder if he meant BOS-HND instead, which is a very common route. (HND is Haneda airport in Tokyo.)
- JCharante 7y agoNo I meant BOS to HAN :) I'm not aware of any direct fligts, but usually it's just 1 layover away. It's a great city (Hanoi), although I have no doubts that Tokyo is awesome too.
- spookthesunset 7y agoOne thing that I'm always amused with is for some reason or other many of these business jets can fly way higher than commercial planes. Most commercial air traffic don't fly higher than like 41,000 feet. If you go into any flight tracker app that lets you filter air traffic by altitude, you'll find many of these business jets buzzing around up at 50,000 feet or so. Not sure what regulations (or lack of) lets them fly so much higher than normal commercial aircraft but there you have it....
- jdsully 7y agoThey have a better power to weight ratio and the smaller air-frames can handle the pressure differential better.
- magduf 7y agoTaking multiple stops to cross the Pacific is still greatly lengthening your trip, and not just because of the pit-stop. See the other response here from JCharante about flying BOS-HAN; you can't do that with a 6500km range. And you can't stop in the middle, because there's no airports near the North Pole. So you'll have to do something like stop on the west coast, then stop again in Hawaii or Guam. Your total trip will be much greater. Why bother with this when you can do it non-stop in first-class with JAL or ANA? You'll have more comfort and better service than on your Citation too.
- kitteh 7y agoThe price is cheaper (in thousands of dollars) if you're willing to take a smaller range jet and take a few hops. The tech stops to refuel are usually quick, unless you are landing in countries known to have stricter checks (LATAM, Africa and some parts of Asia).