Scudrunners

Go!

Lear 60 because its got 8 spars and its not British.

I was in a 60 last week and I was unimpressed with the lack of recline in the seats.  It's was one of the nicest airplanes I've ever seen though and they were meticulous in its care. The cockpit was fairly roomy (compared to a citation), the avionics were great, but the performance numbers are somewhat weak for charter business.  The high and fast is nice, but the Rwy data and payload weight/range numbers are weak.


The hawker, well it's a tank.  Very spacious in cabin and cockpit.  Good payload/range numbers, average rwy  performance numbers and awesome avionics (proline21). Downside is TKS icing system, low certified ceiling (FL410) lack of external baggage and textron owning the parts supply. 

I flew the 55 not the 60, the things I liked about the 55 was the spacious cockpit and how it handled. The thing would slice through the bumps, everyone around us reporting bad rides and we would only really feel some light chop. She wasn't a performer when loaded and a runway hog. But of all the jets I have flown she was the nicest handling.

Now a few factors to consider

Where are you going to be operating it 80% of the time?
- Big city to big city with large runways or a mix
- What mission profile, how many people normally
- normal city pairings.
-budget

I bring this up because if you're operating 4 people from place to place 1000nm or less, you can't go wrong with either. Fuel burns will be pretty similar now operating costs thats something I can't speak about but I do know the Lear 60 has a bad rap for accidents, I believe worst in its class so that will effect your insurance costs.  As for the hawker it has a larger cabin and sometimes that can make all the difference in the world with passengers perception they don't have a clue if your numbers where tight coming out of somewhere (unless you make them dump luggage or additional stop)

As for me I just like Learjets for the sake of Learjets