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If you look at the car industry there are luxury comfort brand like Rolls Royce or Bentley but super expensive racing cars are probably even more popular. They offer limited comfort, are not practical, almost not usable on normal roads, not very reliable and offer terrible fuel consumption. But still everybody dreams about them and a lot of companies try to manufacture.

Business jet can offer luxury and comfort but what to do if you want some excitement or performance? Why are there no jets with massive after burning engines with thrust bigger than weight that can climb straight up and do several G? Something like a cross-breed between a Gulfstream and an F15? Maybe it's good business case to manufacture something like this?

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    $\begingroup$ that can climb straight up and do several G - why? $\endgroup$
    – Simon
    Commented Feb 2, 2016 at 8:48
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    $\begingroup$ @Simon The question is: Why not? I'd like to fly in such a thing ;) $\endgroup$
    – jklingler
    Commented Feb 2, 2016 at 8:51
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    $\begingroup$ Several wealthy individuals privately buy retired military jets. (With weapons and other classified equipment removed of course.) I doubt there's much of a case for designing fast jets for solely private use though. $\endgroup$
    – Andy
    Commented Feb 2, 2016 at 9:22
  • $\begingroup$ The french/german AlphaJet is used by RedBull, but they didn't produce any new ones. de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_Jet Probably you need not only money but also "contacts" as well, because they are still in use by different operators. $\endgroup$
    – Peter
    Commented Feb 2, 2016 at 15:09
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    $\begingroup$ This question brought to mind the Bede BD-10. It was intended to be a supersonic kit plane, but they never worked the bugs out of it. Notably, the vertical fins tended to break off. $\endgroup$
    – Fred Larson
    Commented Feb 3, 2016 at 18:33

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The reason these aren't built is that there's no market for them. Sure, there's loads of people who would love one of these (including me) but they would be incredibly expensive to buy and operate, far out of reach for anyone but the extremely wealthy.

At the airfield I fly from there are Jet Provosts, a 50's era jet trainer, available. These old, not particularly fast or agile jets cost about 1000 USD per hour to fly. I've seen Mig-21 (certainly fast with lots of Gs) training for about $4500 per hour, which gives you an idea of the running costs for a fast, exciting jet.

The existing market of people who can afford this is already supplied by military surplus jets. These run from trainers like the L-39 and Gnats to fighters and bombers like Migs, an F-104, hawker hunter, there's even a privately owned Harrier. These don't cost that much to buy considering what one would cost new, and there's plenty of them on the market, so there's no call for new builds.

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  • $\begingroup$ But is the cost alone an obstacle? As rich people get richer and richer it doesn't matter. Probably there is no any reason to buy Bugatti Veyron and drive 400km/h with service costs comparable with jet fighter but it's still very popular and all examples were sold out. $\endgroup$
    – Andrius
    Commented Feb 2, 2016 at 12:05
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    $\begingroup$ @Andrius Cost is not the obstacle. The lack of market is. 100% of very rich people know how to drive a car. But only 1 out of thousands of very rich people know how to fly at the level needed for your activity. So where is the market in that??? $\endgroup$
    – Steve H
    Commented Feb 2, 2016 at 12:20
  • $\begingroup$ As @JanHudec says, part of the reason rich people buy extremely expensive cars is to show off. You can't really show off much in a "luxury fighter jet". $\endgroup$
    – semi-extrinsic
    Commented Feb 2, 2016 at 13:51
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    $\begingroup$ A (demilitarized) fighter jet is still several times more expensive than Veyron in purchase. But it's thousands of times more expensive in maintenance. Rich people stay rich because they don't buy things that would ruin them. $\endgroup$
    – Agent_L
    Commented Feb 2, 2016 at 13:54
  • $\begingroup$ It's not true! L-39 can cost much less than $100.000 $\endgroup$
    – Andrius
    Commented Feb 2, 2016 at 14:47

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