Amidst all the hubbub surrounding the Eclipse, we owe equal time to a stately grand dame with a new lease on life. To borrow from Trump, the Boeing Business Jet is a yuge, yuge plane in all aspects: cost, space, range, capability. Boeing and partner GE took the proven 737 commercial jet, and converted it from a 125-passenger cattle-car to a penthouse for you and 17 guests. For your hard-earned $48 million, you get an impressive range of 6,000 miles, at speeds in excess of 500 mph. Inside are three bathrooms, two showers, a queen-size bed, a full-service galley, a spacious lounge and a separate conference table for dining or business meetings. Aside from the master bedroom suite (with full bathroom), there’s a second suite to be used as a second bedroom or private office. Communication amenities include voice, data and fax; entertainment features include multiple TVs with satellite programming, DVD, VCR and in-flight monitoring.

Once you’ve made the big splurge, you’ll need to pencil in an additional $5 million annually, aside from flight-hour costs.

NetJets was originally slated to include the BBJ in its full service offering. They initially ordered nine of the beasts, with options on an additional sixteen. The NetJets plan was for 25 planes over five years, with a $10+ million buy-in (quarter-share), a monthly fee of $64,000 and hourly rate of $3,400. Those figures are from 2000, when oil was well south of $30 a barrel.

The subsequent recession trimmed the ambitions of all private aviation companies, and NetJets’ fleet has held at four. With a more modest fleet size, availability guarantees are impossible to fulfill. In fact, two of the BBJs have been leased for the entire summer, trimming the fleet in half.

Enter Marquis Jet, which created a separate super-club to peddle NetJet’s inventory. The result is the exclusive M Club, where you pony up a mere $150,000 to be drawn down at $15,696 per flight hour.

The first-generation BBJ1 was based on the 737-700 fuselage; the newer BBJ2 is based on the 737-800, which translates to 25% more interior space and twice the luggage capacity. There are 85 of these beasts in service. The BBJ1 debuted in 1998; the BBJ2 in 2002. For reasons of security or discretion (c.f. Brin, Page, et al), most full-plane owners don’t want to flash their BBJ around – golfer Greg Norman’s the only owner we’ve identified. If you know of others, clue us in at jets@heliumreport.com.