Challenger 850

The Challenger 850 makes the bluntest trade in this category and makes it deliberately clear. The cabin is 581 in long at the full 98 in width, seats sixteen and takes 202 cu ft of baggage across twenty bags. The range is 3,096 nm, the shortest of the eleven heavy jets we charter. Nothing about that combination is accidental to how the aircraft gets used: it is chosen when the party is large, the cabin has to be a room rather than a corridor, and the sector is well inside what the class can do. Takeoff is 6,305 ft and landing 2,910 ft — the only verified landing figure we hold for any heavy jet.

Width is what distinguishes it from the other large-cabin options here. At 98 in it matches the Challenger 604 and 605 and exceeds everything else in the class, and it applies that width across 581 in rather than 341. Sixteen people in that space are genuinely accommodated rather than seated in rows. The 202 cu ft hold sits behind them, second in this class only to the two Legacys. Production has ended. A charterer weighing this against a Gulfstream G-450 is really choosing between volume and reach: the 850 will not fly as far, and for the sectors it does fly, nothing else here offers as much room per passenger.

Volume, openly traded for range