We’ll discuss every option available for financing a purchase of a private jet, from traditional loans to aircraft leases. But before that, let’s start with the basics.

How Much Does it Cost to Buy a Private Jet?

While the statement may seem ridiculous, buying a jet plane is similar to buying a car. The price of an aircraft depends on its age, whether it’s new or used, and performance specs, among numerous other factors. 

There are a few popular types of private jets, which we’ll outline below.

• Very Light Jets: Holds between 4 and 8 passengers and can stay in the air for up to 3 hours. These jets are priced between $1.4 and $5.5 million.
• Light Jets: A light jet can hold between 7 and 9 passengers. It also can have ld a bathroom or a small kitchen onboard. Light jets cost up to $6 million.
• Midsize Business Jets: As the name suggests, these jets are perfect for business travel and can hold up to 10 passengers. They cost between $10 and $20 million and work well for short and mid-range flights.

How to Find the Right Lender

Whether you’re applying for a traditional bank loan, an asset-based loan, or an aircraft lease, it’s important to shop around and compare offers from multiple lenders.

When comparing loans, be sure to look at:

• Reputation: Be sure to research the lender’s reputation before you apply. Use a website like Paydaysverige that gives you an overview of the lender, their rates, and reviews from other customers.
• Interest rates: Affects monthly payments and the overall loan costs. Look for lenders like Coop — https://paydaysverige.com/coop-lan/ — that offer loans with low-interest rates.
• Repayment terms: Shorter terms usually mean higher monthly payments, but you’ll pay less interest overall.
• Fees and charges: Certain lenders will charge you processing, closing, and origination fees. Others, like Klara Lan — https://paydaysverige.com/klara-lan/ — have programs with no hidden fees or charges.
• Loan terms: Shorter terms often have higher monthly payments; however, you’ll pay less in interest over the life of the loan.

3 Ways to Finance Private Jets

Before you start shopping for your private jet, you must know how you’ll finance the purchase. Here are three common financing options:

1. Traditional Loan

If you’re like most people – if you want to own a private jet, you’re probably not like your average person –  you probably finance all of your major purchases with bank loans. And if you choose to go this route, you’ll need a strong credit score and a healthy down payment to qualify.

Traditional loans can be structured for repayment periods of up to 20 years, but you’ll likely pay a higher interest rate than you would for other types of loans.

2. Asset-Based Loan

Another option is an asset-based loan, which lets you use the aircraft as collateral. This type of loan usually has a shorter repayment period than a traditional bank loan — often seven years or less.

While only a few organizations offer this type of loan, it comes with several perks, including:

• No financial disclosures: You don’t have to reveal your tax returns or other financial statements to the lender.
• No personal guarantee: You’re not liable for the loan, so your personal assets are protected if you can’t repay the debt.
• Flexible collateral: In addition to the aircraft, you can use other assets, such as real estate, to secure the loan

3. Aircraft Lease

If you’re not ready to commit to owning something as big as an actual airplane, you can always lease an aircraft instead. Leasing allows you to take private flights whenever you can, without the large upfront purchase cost.

Leasing also offers some advantages over owning, such as:

• Potentially lower payments: Lease payments are often lower than loan payments because you’re only paying for the use of the aircraft, not the entire price.
• More flexibility: Select a shorter term than the typical loan repayment term, so you can upgrade to a newer model when the lease is up.
• Tax benefits: In some cases, you may be able to deduct lease payments as a business expense.

Closing Thoughts

If you’re considering buying a private jet, financing is important. Traditional bank loans, asset-based loans, and aircraft leases are all popular financing options for private jet purchases.

When choosing a loan, compare interest rates, repayment terms, fees, and charges from multiple lenders. And be sure to research the lender’s reputation before you apply.

You can find the right financing solution for your private jet purchase by comparing your options.

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But what about the other end of the spectrum? What would be the smallest commercial plane out there? How many passengers can it board? 

That would be the Yakovlev Yak-40, which is just 33 feet long and can only seat 30 passengers. So what’s the story behind this tiny plane?

The Origins of Yakovlev Yak-40 

Aleksandr Sergeyevich Yakovlev was one of the earliest Soviet aircraft designers. During the 1920s, he was responsible for designing several different planes, including the AIR-1, a two-seat light biplane.

His early designs paved the way for him to create the Yak-1 fighter plane, which was used extensively in World War II. After the war, Yakovlev decided to focus on creating passenger planes, and the Yak-40 was born.

Once the war was over, the global aviation industry entered the jet age. That’s when the Yak-40 made its debut. The plane entered service with Aeroflot, the Soviet Union’s national airline, in 1966.

During the 1960s, Yakovlev already had decades of experience in managing plane design programs. That’s why Aeroflot trusted him to design an airplane that could fly easily in and out of small, poorly equipped airports.

The Idea Behind Yakovlev Yak-40 

In the Soviet Union, many runways were disrepair and lacked the necessary infrastructure to support larger planes. The Yak-40 was designed as a “local” plane that could take off and land on shorter runways.

The Yak-40 was also designed to fly at lower altitudes, which made it more fuel-efficient. That was a significant advantage at a time when fuel was expensive and in short supply.

During the late 1960s, the plane entered the passenger market and found success as a regional airliner. It was used extensively by Aeroflot and other Soviet-era airlines.

The plane quickly gained a reputation for being reliable and easy to operate. However, there were some drawbacks. The Yak-40 was not pressurized, so passengers had to endure lower oxygen levels and colder temperatures at higher altitudes. The plane was also quite loud due to its three Kuznetsov NK-8 engines.

The Aeroflot Flight 19 Incident

A noticeable incident during the early years of Yak-40 was the hijacking, which happened in November 1973, on the route between Bykovo and Bryansk airports. 

A few minutes before landing, four armed people headed over to the cockpit and took control. The plane was then redirected to Vnukovo Airport, where the plane landed.

During the hijacking, the authorities stormed the plane. The police officers managed to save all of the hostages. Two hijackers were killed during the operation, and the rest were arrested and prosecuted.

Yakovlev Yak-40 Rise in Popularity

In the mid-1970s, a new edition of the Yak-40 was introduced. It had a greater range, a new forward door, and a modern setup of windows. More than 20 new variants were proposed or designed in the following years.

The Yak-40 quickly became popular with Aeroflot and other airlines in the Soviet Union. By the 1980s, over 1,000 Yak-40s were in service. The plane was even exported to countries like Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, and East Germany.

It’s also important to note that the plane was sold in these countries for hard currency, which was a valuable commodity in the Soviet Union. In the early 1990s, after the fall of the USSR, Aeroflot began to replace its Yak-40 fleet with newer planes. 

The success of Yak-40 led to the design of Yak-42, which is a larger, more modern plane. It was the first airliner made by the Soviets that was backed by modern bypass turbofan engines.

The Legacy of Yakovlev Yak-40 

After everything is said and done, the Yak-40 has left a huge mark on the aircraft industry. It’s still a popular plane in the former Soviet Union and other parts of the world. And it’s all thanks to its small size and big impact.

You can see it in operation with the likes of Motor Sich, Vologoda Aviation, and Severstal Air Company.

Aeroflot nowadays doesn’t use any Yak-40 in their current fleet. Instead, the company uses Superjet 100, a product of the Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company.

Although Aeroflot no longer uses it, the Yak-40 remains an important part of the company’s history. It was a reliable workhorse that served the airline well for many years. And it’s a plane that will always be remembered fondly by those who had the chance to fly on it.

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“No one in the world has created the airplane that I showed almost 30 years ago, – says V. Dmitriev. – My “ultralight” weighing only 24.5 kg without a motor and with a wing area of 1.5 square meters made it into the Guinness Book of Records in the early 1980s.

Yakovlev or Sukhoi sports planes weigh about a ton. And to lift a ton of precious metal into the air, you need a motor of at least 360 hp. Dmitriev’s plane is 20 times lighter and smaller. Many people didn’t believe it could be, until they saw it. “I myself performed aerobatics on the Yak-18T many times,” continues Viktor Pavlovich, “It gets off the ground at 125 km/h and higher, and my plane can take off at 50-55 km/h.

In 1984 Dmitriev was invited to the most prestigious air show in Oshkosh (Wisconsin, USA). He took the plane to America in a folded form – it came in a suitcase, causing amazement among specialists. The exhibit was so popular among the air show visitors that it had to be surrounded by an additional fence, otherwise it would have been stolen by aviation fans.

In terms of aerodynamics, Dmitriev’s planes are still considered unbeatable. Of course, it is theoretically possible to make the machine even lighter, to reduce the speed and the wing area. But it would be practically impossible to control such an airplane.

Dmitriev’s new microplane has reached the minimum dimensions, area ratio and mounting profiles, at which a normally controllable flight is possible. The mechanization of the wing (two-slit flap) and tail, first used 30 years ago, remains unique today. It was at one time drew attention at the air show in Oshkosh. Experts from NASA and Boeing were working on such fins in the USA, investing huge amounts of money in the project. Dmitriev, on the other hand, has (in his words, almost by accident) a highly mechanized variable tail profile optimized with the angle of the flaps.

At the XIII Moscow International Salon of Inventions and Innovation Technologies, held in Sokolniki, Dmitriev showed a new experimental model X-12h weighing 50 kg (without the motor), created by the original, but simple and cheap scheme with the same high mechanization. Acceleration and takeoff of the aircraft is possible at 30 meters, landing – at 60 meters (to a full stop). The airplane needs an engine of 30 to 50 hp and weighing up to 16 kg (for example, Limbach L550E engine).

According to the author, such a machine can already be recommended to our aviators as an economical and adapted aircraft for sports and tourist purposes. On the basis of the X-12h it is possible to design two- and four-seater machines. Despite the increased scale, the aircraft will still be small. With the X-12h scheme, you can make not just a great airplane, but one that is needed in a particular case, for the task at hand.

The main advantage: thanks to its aerodynamic qualities, the plane cannot stall, even with the most careless piloting. As Viktor Dmitriev says, “the airplane forgives a novice aviator his mistakes.

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This airplane had a conventional truss fuselage welded from steel tubes, wooden wings, and canvas-clad fender. The power plant consisted of a Continental C-85 engine, rated at 85 hp (62.5 kW). The pilot was accommodated in a usual cockpit. The wings of the plane, made by biplane scheme, had high rigidity and were so small (the span was 2.6 m) that struts and struts were not used; in fact, if struts were installed at the usual place, the pilot simply could not open the door of the cockpit. The aircraft was originally built with a nose strut, but it was replaced with a tail strut to reduce overall height.

The first flight of the SA-2A Sky Baby (N5K) was flown by Bob Starr on May 26, 1952 at Palm Springs, California. The weight limit for the pilot was no more than 77 kilograms (otherwise the alignment would be compromised).

The cockpit of the miniliner was cramped and not particularly comfortable, if only for the reason that the engine of the plane was practically resting against the knees of the pilot, and the pedal, pressed to the maximum, was almost resting against the hood, on which a few centimeters was spinning the propeller.

But, by the way, the Sky Baby had good speed characteristics, Starr even compared it to the Mustang. With a wing area of only 3.39 m2 and a takeoff weight of 205 kg, the Sky Baby was a very fast plane. It had a top speed of 350 km/h, a cruising speed of 266 km/h and a landing speed of 129 km/h.

In 1952, Starr and Stitts toured the States with demonstration flights. The SA-2A was written off and ceased flying in October 1952 after 25 hours of flight time. The plane was eventually donated to the National Air and Space Museum and officially became the smallest airplane in the world (at the time).

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This quite small weight of this flying vehicle is achieved by maximally light construction of the hull made wholly of carbon composite fiber. Of course, this aircraft will not fly in a thunderstorm or in a strong side wind. So its closest analog among land vehicles can be called a bicycle or moped.

But at a specified weight of the aircraft itself, FlyNano can lift up to 200 kilograms in the air. So even very fat people can fly this flying machine. True, they will necessarily need to be able to swim, because this tiny plane can take off only from the water and land only on the water. In general, the inhabitants of the desert area it will be of no use.

The minimum speed of the FlyNano is 70 kilometers per hour, maximum – 200. Aki Suokas considers the optimum speed of 140 kilometers per hour, at which 75 percent of the engine power is involved. FlyNano has a flight ceiling of 3 kilometers.

In the version with a gasoline engine FlyNano will be able to fly up to 70 kilometers on one tank. The electric engine reduces this range to 40 kilometers, but makes the plane quieter and more economical.

As expected, FlyNano will go on sale in August this year in three variants: two types of gasoline engines (24 and 35 horsepower) and one type of electric motor. Moreover, the most expensive model of this aircraft will cost 27 thousand euros (39 thousand U.S. dollars).

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“The Bumble Bee” can easily fit into a “shell” garage – 2.7 m long, its wingspan is 1.68 m and weighs only 180 kg with a maximum takeoff weight of about 260. Despite the diminutive size and the engine only 85 “horses”, planeswalker turned pretty sharp – 305 km / h and very maneuverable. The height to which the striped biplane can climb – 4600 meters – impresses as well.

What kind of name is the Bumble Bee? From the point of view of modern science, a bumblebee should not fly, the same experts said about this plane. But apparently the Bumble bee and Bumble Bee II have never heard of this and so they flew. Robert Starr flew the Bumble Bee II several times and broke the world record in April 1988 at the age of 64. On the last flight of the Bumble Bee II, the engine stalled in flight. As a result, the Bumble Bee II was completely destroyed, the pilot himself only sustained minor injuries and soon recovered. He donated the Bumble Bee I to the Pima Air Museum in Tucson, Arizona.

Starr flew over 15,000 hours in a variety of types from the Piper Cub to the F-86 Sabre. He was a fighter pilot in World War II and flew P-40s and P-51s in the 14th Air Force Flying Tigers in China. He participated in most of the major air shows in the United States. Starr was also a test pilot for many experimental aircraft.

The Bumble Bee II is now listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the smallest manned aircraft.

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