731 Falcon 20B

It was 10 years ago that the 731 Falcon 20B made its first flight. Since then, AlliedSignal has re-engined 103 Falcon 20-series business jets with its 4750-pound thrust TFE731-5BR turbofans. The popular and handsome Falcon 20 now has a new lease on life in terms of performance and Stage III compliance. Clay Lacy, Pro Pilot’s flightcheck pilot, recently had the opportunity to fly a 731 Falcon 20B. He reports his impressions of the re-engined Falcon’s handling and performance characteristics and offers some insights as to the wisdom of investing millions of dollars in an airframe that may be 10 to 30 years old.

Bell 609 Civil Tiltrotor

BELL Helicopter Textron took the Bell Boeing tiltrotor program in house earlier this year with two products in the pipeline—the Bell 609 civil tiltrotor and the larger V-22 Osprey military tiltrotor, which is still a Bell Boeing program. The 609, based on the existing XV-15 testbed, holds much promise for corporate, search and rescue, EMS and special mission applications. 

Bombardier Global 5000

Introduced in Feb 2002 and FAA certified this October, Bombardier’s Global 5000 is one of the more interesting business aircraft to enter the market- place in recent years. After removing 32 inches of fuselage, and 7600 lb of fuel, from the standard Global Express, the manufacturer has dropped the price about $10 million

Bombardier Learjet 40

Bombardier's Learjet 40, designed to address the shortcomings of the earlier model Learjet 31A and priced more than $2 million less than the popular Learjet 45, is sure to provide many operators with exactly what they are looking for.

Citation Excel

The Citation Excel was designed as follow-on aircraft to the popular Citation V Ultra. It’s probably been the most successful new bizjet offering ever with more than 200 firm orders at this very early stage of the program. Our flight test pilot, Clay Lacy, made his way to Wichita KS to evaluate the Excel’s unique blend of light jet and big-cabin attributes.