It’s a four-place, 320 knots (cruise), glass cockpit jet and you’ll pay only $611,628 for it.
No, it isn’t one of the new crop of very light jets. In fact, it’s a very old jet in one sense, having been designed in the 1960s. In another sense, though, it is virtually new, says Greg Webster of Your Aircraft Source, LLC.
It’s a totally refurbished Paris Jet, and there were two of them at last month’s Sun ‘n Fun fly-in. One was for sale “as is,” but the other had had the full treatment, almost equivalent to remanufacturing, but not quite enough to call it a zero-time airframe.
Maintenance is simple, Webster says, happy to tell you that it takes one man 10 minutes to remove the entire tail section – everything aft of the engines.
It does, however, have everything a light-jet pilot could ask for, starting with a full Chelton glass cockpit. The airframe has been completely disassembled, stripped down, the metal cleaned and powder coated or epoxy painted, all glass replaced and every system brought up to new standards. It’s a 2,500-hour job, Webster says. The plane keeps its original, impressive +15, -7 Gs rating.
Carrying 250 gallons of Jet-A in an internal tank, its twin Turbomecca engines developing 1,060 pounds of thrust each, the Paris Jet scoots along at 320 knots at up to 25,000 feet, where pressurization keeps the cockpit at a comfortable 8,000 feet.
Cost per mile is $1.64, Webster says, or right around $400 an hour. “But you go twice as fast as a Baron,” Webster quips, “so it’s really half the cost.”
The jets are available with several levels of cockpit sophistication, reflected in the price. Next to the top-of-the-line Chelton setup – at $611,628 – is one with an Avidyne cockpit at $539,445. A simpler Nav I version sells for $498,164.
The glistening black Paris Jet is well worth a tempting look.
