So, through a set of cirumstances, you have the ability to indulge in a little bit of conspicuous consumption. For reasons, you get to have the airplane of your choosing. Any one you want, but YOU have to fly it. If it’s large enough, I suppose you could hire a copilot and someone to serve drinks and peanuts, but it’s your plane, you fly. This is assuming you are able to qualify for a pilots license and then on the aircraft of your choice, of course.
SR-71 blackbird, hands down. I have to fly it myself? Well, that will be interesting… but yeah, teach me. I am crazy enough to try. That is going to be very expensive!
No question about it, my ideal airplane is the Boeing 737-800 (realistically, it would probably be more practical to buy a BBJ2, which is the Boeing Business Jet based on a customized 737-800). The BBJ2 can be equipped with special features suitable for a business jet, such as extra tanks for longer range than the commercial 737-800.
Many, many reasons for that, some of which are the same reasons the 737 in general and the 737-800 in particular have been so popular with airlines – a great balance of space, economy, and range. It’s a damn beautiful airplane, easily big enough to be luxuriously spacious, but not extravagantly wasteful like a widebody jumbo would be.
I’d have to have a couple of pilots on standby even if I got the appropriate certification myself, because regulations require two pilots for an airplane of that class. Also, I’d sometimes employ both pilots so I could lounge in the back – what’s the point of paying millions of dollars for a luxurious cabin if you’re never in it? And yes, it literally can cost millions to equip a green aircraft with a luxuriously appointed custom interior.
Spitfire, a cliche of course but with good reason.
I don’t think anything aloft has ever looked or sounded quite so right. If I have to fly it, OK, but I’d prefer to have someone do it for me so that
a) I can see it properly
b) I can hear it properly.
This would be my first choice if not for a desire to travel with my family. So a Concorde SST it is. There will be room to bring you along too.
Yeah, this would work too, and they’ll let me fly it on cross country routes.
Of course, I’d be perfectly happy with Gulstream G800. it’ll fly far enough to let me get anywhere I want to go (maybe with an extra stop) and it has been short field performance too. That would shorten the drive to the airport.
I’ve never much liked Gulfstreams. If I had to give up my dreams of a beautiful 737-800 and stoop down to that level, I’d go for a Bombardier Global Express.
I’d like either the Blohm Voss 141 (which looked like it was designed by a lunatic but was actually a good plane) or the Vought XF5U (the Flying Flapjack). I like them because they look so very odd. I wouldn’t expect to last long flying either one though.
Does it have to be one that currently in service? If a could have a private airliner I’d preserve a classic airliner like how John Travolta used to have a 707, except I’d pick a Lockheed L-1011. Because tri-jets are cool, and the L-1011 is sexier looking than the DC-10. I think the ones the RAF retired a few years ago might still be flyable.
Barring that, then I’d take the last 747-8 off the line. Because go big or go home.
I assume I get a relief crew so I can get some sleep during long flights, right? I mean that’s FAA regulations. Of course I’d have either plane fitted with a luxurious cabin, with bedrooms.
The L-1011 was not only beautiful but a highly regarded airplane. I remember back in the day when Air Canada was considering a jumbo tri-jet and did impressively thorough evaluations, eventually concluding that the L-1011 was hands-down the superior choice over the DC-10. One of the potential issues with the L-1011’s center engine S-duct design was that the integrated engine was not readily upgradeable to any new (and possibly larger) engine design, but that was never really an issue during the airplane’s lifetime. The DC-10, OTOH, had so many serious problems and hull losses that it quickly acquired a pretty shitty reputation.
The main reasons tri-jets were popular for awhile had to do with ETOPS standards for overseas operations as well as the limited power of early jet engines. With the improved power of high-bypass turbofans and increased engine reliability, the industry quickly transitioned to twin-jets and the old tri-jets were hamstrung by relatively poor fuel economy.
