Boeing Business Jet (BBJ)

The Boeing Business Jet is a member of the venerated 737 family. The 737s collectively have over 60 million hours of flight time and are still in high demand in the commercial aviation market. The BBJ sold more than a hundred planes in just four years of production, and orders continue to come in. No other private jet offers as much cabin space or reliability. After all, the BBJ is a descendant of commercial aircraft, designed to last decades.

The Boeing Business Jet’s full name is the BBJ 737-700 IGW. IGW stands for “Increased Gross Weight,” much of which is due to its massive cabin. The total cabin volume is 5,390 cubic feet and can be configured almost any way desired. Most configurations divide the cabin into four compartments (in addition to a crew rest area). The four compartments generally consist of a board room, a lounge, a VIP bedroom (with a queen-sized bed, if desired), a business office, and two lavatories with showers.

The BBJ, despite its size and its maximum take off weight of 171,000 pounds, can take off from a sea level runway in 5,885 feet. At an altitude of 5,000 feet and a temperature of 77˚F, the required runway distance increases to 9,645 feet. For comparison’s sake, the average takeoff distance of heavy private jets at sea level is 5,500 feet. The average MTOW of these private jets is 52,000 pounds, 30% of the BBJ’s MTOW.

Another area in which the massive BBJ performs like one of the smaller heavy private jets is in its climb rate. It climbs directly to 37,000 feet in 25 minutes. At this altitude it achieves its high speed cruise of 470 ktas. At 39,000 feet it gets optimal long range cruise performance of 451 ktas. Its range, with eight passengers and required NBAA IFR reserves, is 6,098 nautical miles. It can easily complete trips from Denver to Tokyo or from Los Angeles to Frankfurt – distance is no limitation. Its required amount of runway for landing will not be a limiting factor, either: when carrying four passengers and NBAA IFR reserves, the BBJ needs only 2,330 feet to land.

The Boeing Business Jet is pretty economical as far as ultra-long-range jets go: on a 6,000 nautical mile trip carrying eight passengers, such as New York to Beijing, it will use 10,000 gallons of fuel and reach the destination in 50 minutes. On a shorter trip of 1,000 nautical miles with eight passengers, such as from Denver to Detroit, 1,600 gallons of fuel would be used and the flight time would be 30 minutes.

The flight controls themselves are designed to be extremely easy to use, so that even pilots from third world countries with little flight training could use them. Even though any pilot qualified by FAA standards to fly a Boeing Business Jet will have ample experience, the thought is nonetheless comforting. The plane lacks no piece of guidance or system awareness technology that could be added to a commercial or private jet.

Truly, the BBJ lacks nothing. For those that can afford it, it is the epitome of everything that could be desired in a private jet.

for more information on the Boeing Business Jet, contact Kevin O'Leary at koleary@jetadvisors.com or 303-410-1900.