Business aviation continues to soar.

It's been a steady and successful climb for private jets over the past 75 years. What is it that has driven so many executives into the realm of business air travel? And what's in the future for this unique sector of the aviation industry?

To answer these questions effectively, a little historical perspective is needed.

Business Aviation started in the late 1920s and 1930s, when progressive companies realized the time saved by air travel. It was only after WWII that Business Aviation came into its own and most of the Fortune 500 companies started using corporate aircraft Surplus C-47/DC-3 aircraft were available from the Army Air Corps that were in like new condition and inexpensive. By 1955, about 500 DC-3 executive aircraft were in corporate service along with over 1500 smaller aircraft, such as twin engine Beechcrafts. While the DC-3 had a great cabin with lots of room, it was not pressurized and by the mid-fifties was slower than the airlines.

About 1955 several CEO's in the New York area convinced the CEO of Grumman to build an airplane with DC-3 comfort but with DC-6, DC-7 speed. The result was the Turbo Prop Gulfstream I that would cruise 300 MPH. By 1960, the need for jet speed in business aircraft was obvious. North American had built the T-39 Sabreliner from the F-86 Sabrejet design but few were in design and Lockheed was working on the Jet Star.

Bill Lear had become very interested in this concept, and in 1959 at the Society of Automotive Engineers Convention in Wichita, challenged the Wichita plane makers to build one and dropped the word that he would give them two years and if they had not started, he was going to build one. True to his word, in 1961 he bought a factory in Switzerland that had a jet fighter design, which had flown, but was not being funded. For over a year work progressed fast, but not fast enough for Bill Lear. One big problem for Bill was that the workers primarily spoke German, French or Italian, and he could not communicate as well as he wished. By late 1962, Bill had made a deal with the city of Wichita to build a new factory on Mid-Continent airport. September 1964, the Lear 23 was certified and deliveries started. Also coming along close behind the Lear was the Jet Commander, the Hansa Jet and the Hawker 125. The Learjet had great speed but was small inside, as was the Jet Commander and the Hansa. The Hawker 125 was mid-size, but no DC-3. By 1968, Gulfstream had the G-II out which had the same size cabin as the G-I. Sales of smaller jets continued, as the price difference was considerable.

With the introduction of jets to the corporate fleet, business aviation expanded rapidly. From the late 60's until now over 15,000 in service. In recent years the trend has been toward the mid to larger cabin jets, smaller cabin aircraft like the Citation Encore, Sovereign and Lear 45 size continue to have their place also.

Ultra Long Range aircraft like the Global Express and Gulfstream V-550 with a range of 6,500 miles, have found buyers, with over 450 now in service. Virtually all-large and not so large progressive companies must have corporate jets available to stay competitive. Today companies have choices for such service, which are charter ownership, or fractional ownership.

Back in 1965, Bill Lear had a billboard as you drove out of the airline terminal at Dallas Love Field, which said, "Welcome to Dallas, your competition has been here and left in his Learjet." Today this is absolutely true.

The past fifteen years have seen many changes in the ownership and operation of corporate jets. As a percentage of business' use, charter and fractional ownership has increased over company owned and operated aircraft While many established corporate flight departments continue to flourish, many new users find that charter or fractional meets their needs better.

In favor of charter, if you are dealing with a large charter company, you can select from several different size and price of aircraft. In addition, you have no investment, no additional employees and no new department. You need only to make one phone call and it all happens. In the case of fractional ownership, it is also a no hassle experience, with only a phone call, just like charter, however, you do have an investment for a share in an airplane, also a monthly maintenance fee with the net being considerable more per hour or mile than charter.

The newest and fastest growing segment of business aviation the past several years has been Aircraft Management. This is where an owner purchases an aircraft and then assigns it to a management company to operate. This involves investment, but the Management Company handles all other functions from supplying pilots, to assuring the aircraft is continually airworthy. If you wish to reduce your monthly cost, let the Management Company charter the aircraft when the owner is not using it. In most cases this does not zero the cash flow of ownership, but certainly reduces the cost of ownership. With the current depreciation allowance for new equipment, this has presented a positive new consideration for ownership.

Since I brought the first corporate jet to Van Nuys more than 40 years ago, the proven benefit to businessmen of point to point jet travel can be seen in the fact that about 150 executive jet aircraft are now based at Van Nuys, which is Los Angeles' only business airport. Who are the business users? First it is companies or individuals that are on the move, sometimes referred to as the movers and shakers users that time is very valuable to. Often you can make a trip in one or two days with stops in 5 or more cities that would take 3 to 5 days on the airline. Today flying airlines takes much more time than ten years ago. Today the drive to the airport, parking, security checks, and loading can take as long as the flight. Example: an airline trip from Los Angeles to Seattle. Leave office or home 2 hours before departure, 30-minute drive, parking and security plus boarding 1 hour 30 minutes, scheduled trip time 2 hours 35 minutes, off load, pick-up baggage 30 minutes, taxi or limo to downtown 30 minutes for a total time of 5 hours 35 minutes, and this is a direct non-stop flight with no hub transfer.

Same trip in a corporate jet: Leave office or home 30 minutes prior to departure, 5 minutes boarding and transferring luggage, trip time 2 hours 20 minutes, taxi or limo to downtown, time 20 minutes, total time 3 hours 15 minutes; 2 hours 20 minutes saved. Now if you want to make a round trip in a day, you save 4 hours and 40 minutes in one day. Additional benefits are personal security, as you know everyone on board, no restrictions on what you bring on board, you can't miss the flight because of traffic, no eves dropping on your papers or conversation.

Uses other than business jets benefit our society for example, critical medical organ transplants that have saved thousands of lives due to time saved.

Companies doing road shows or new IPO's use business jets to great advantage, news media to cover disasters. In addition, some wealthy individuals use business jets to save time on personal travel, but this use is a very small percentage of the total.

The future of private jet use? It will only increase as business is now based on its use, the millions of hours saved each year cannot be given up. If you subtracted the time saved by using business jets over the past ten years, we would probably be six months or more behind.

The bottom line in all of this is time. Time cannot be replaced or retrieved. Once it is used, it can never be recovered. Many business acquisitions or mergers are made only because of the business jet, as the principles might never have made the trip had they not had the airplane.

Clay Lacy is the founder of Clay Lacy Aviation. For more information, please visit www.claylacy.com.

Business Aviation Market Forecast

Honeywell Aerospace's 13th annual business aviation outlook projects increasing demand for new business jets, with customers expected to purchase more than 8,300 jets valued at about $131 billion from now through 2014. The forecast also projects sustained near-term sales for business jets, welcome news for an industry weary of the doldrums of the last three years.

"Improved order rates, established new model backlogs, continuing expansion in fractional ownership in North America and Europe and sustained economic recovery are key factors supporting a longer-term outlook for growth," said Honeywell president and CEO Bob Johnson.

"Operators continue to tell us they recognize the benefits of business aircraft and express strong interest in new technology and new models with improved value propositions," Johnson added.

Manufacturer backlogs remain at nearly 1,500 aircraft orders, options and deposits, according to Honeywell. About 40 percent of them are attributed to fractional ownership programs. Close to two-thirds of the total order backlog is for new designs, amounting to more than 1,000 aircraft. Examples are the Bombardier Challenger 300, Gulfstream 150, Cessna Citation Sovereign, Citation Mustang, Dassault Falcon 7X and Raytheon Hawker Horizon.

Many aircraft manufacturers have been reporting higher sales activity this year than last, said Honeywell, which supports strong planned increases in production next year.

"Aircraft manufacturers and suppliers continued to invest in the future of the business aviation industry," Johnson said. "As a result, we are enjoying numerous new aircraft and system introductions now, and more are on the way."

Information provided by the National Business Aviation Association