There’s certainly a mystique around business jets with their mix of celebrity glamour and impressive performance attributes. But what if we go back to the very first business jet, an aircraft not initially designed to do this role specifically and instead intended to be used for military purposes. I’m talk about the Lockheed JetStar which is the subject that Big Radials took on for their next aircraft. In this first flight I take a short hop from Las Vegas over to San Jose. Let’s fly!

Jet setting in early access!

My short flight with this aircraft is between two hubs. Las Vegas Harry Reid International Airport (KLAS) and my destination is San Jose Mineta International Airport (KSJC). Both are Orbx sold scenery! I figured these were two great airports from a scenery perspective and would make a great way to introduce myself to the aircraft.

Big Radials are offering up the JetStar in early access. The aircraft is very flyable (as you’ll see) but the team is still working on the visuals, the systems, the flight model, sounds the overhead panel, a custom CIVA INS, and a paint kit. More liveries are planned too. Big Radials are pitching this as a way to support their small development team while they finish the product. But they also encourage those who are interested in the finished product to wait until then. For now, this is very much a work in progress.

Once on the ramp it was time to start it up. Unfortunately, we don’t yet have documentation and the checklist is not done yet either… so I resorted to Cntrl+E to get things rolling. Which works by the way! That’s a point in the fast and fun category.

After that, we taxied over to runway 8 at Las Vegas going past all of the FBOs along the northern side of the airport. Then it was on to the runway after a short wait and takeoff time.

The throttles on the four engines went up and away we went down the runway. Big Radials have already started to give this jet a little bit of personality and the ground handling must be using the new tire system because the aircraft subtly bobs up and down during taxi and on the takeoff roll. Feels lively!

Turbulence on route

After getting established in the air, doing the quick climb up to 30,000 feet and settled on our course I engaged the autopilot. The JetStar has very basic autopilot system that reminds me a small amount of the one in the Fokker F28 – in terms of where some of the controls are positioned anyways. Its even more limited with a heading hold, altitude hold, radio and approach modes. Heading hold is pretty slow to react as well so the turns are wide. I made many of these by turning off the autopilot.

Enroute to San Jose it was time to take a look around both outside and inside the aircraft. The JetStar is an interesting four engine design with looks that offer a template that would soon be in place across an entire piece of the aviation industry. Model and texture work is generally good already though some areas, particularly on the underside, seem to have less detail. Inside, its the same story with some pieces that are absolutely brilliant looking and other parts that are not yet finished. Big Radials has said as much so I’m not really reviewing it just yet.

The passenger area is decked out in what I can only describe as 1970s chique upholstry. One of the fun things about Big Radials is that they tend to do old aircraft, lovingly, and they tend to really lean into the era and the experience that you should feel with something of this age (check out my reviews of the Goose and the Norseman).

At this point we were being battered around by some pretty severe turbulence. Not sure if it was the sim, the weather model, or the jet but we were swinging the nose around quite a lot as we flew over various mountain ranges. I climbed to FL340 to try and get away from it but I had to wait it out until we’d cleared the area. Autopilot stayed on!

As the skies got darker, I turned on all of the lights in the cockpit that I could find. The flood, unfortunately, is not available at the moment. Some instruments are not well lit without it.

The lights appear

San Jose appeared ahead after spending a long time in the darkening skies above the mountains of California. I had already descended to 18,000 feet, with some difficulty getting the autopilot to do what I wanted it to do (I don’t think I fully understand the system yet). So hand flying happened for a lot of this flight.

Turning in for a beautiful approach at San Jose, I was enjoying the hand flying experience and bringing the aircraft in on the approach. I had a lot of the approach right staying on the glide slope, managing my speed, and then for some reason I let it get all away from me and I was far too fast on the landing with the aircraft bucking and bouncing. Reversers on…. and the aircraft tipped over on its wing causing critical damage. Woops!

Thoughts

This is early days for Big Radials and their JetStar. This has tons of potential with a great subject aircraft, vintage feel, some already pretty good texture and model work on the outside, decent work on the inside too, and some of the sounds have that screaming old jet feel. The handling is already quite lively making it quite enjoyable overall. I’m guessing that Big Radials are using all of the latest tech available to make it fly and its mostly working. I also love the cabin and all of the accoutrements that are back there.

On the “still needs to be worked on” side of things, I think the jet engine sounds are a bit loud and screechy on the inside and maybe those need to be tuned, there’s parts of the cockpit that need some tuning, there’s clearly some systems that need to be worked on, the checklist, tuning the autopilot and ground handling, and generally sorting out the details.

This isn’t a review as this is not a finished product so consider this a preview of an in-development product. What I see I generally like a whole lot. There’s style and substance here already. On the other hand, there’s a lot to do and a lot to work on. Here’s how you should approach this. If you’re interested in jumping in early to offer up some support for a small developer team, buy it now and work through the bugs and the challenges. If you’re the kind of person who wants to enjoy a finished product, consider this a preview of a cool aircraft that’s coming down the pipeline.

I suspect when Big Radials is done with this thing that it will be dripping with nostalgia and a whole lot of fun to fly. It already is!

Learn more about Big Radials Jet Star over on their website!