Traveling by private jet is convenient, and seems quite glamorous to many people. Private jet charter is a privilege and a luxury few people ever know or experience. Given these perceptions, you may be surprised to know that private jets and charter flight had very humble and even uncertain beginnings.

The first jet-propelled aircraft was built nearly one hundred years ago by a Romanian inventor, Henri Coanda. An odd-looking aircraft, it was a type of thermojet that used a compressor instead of a propeller, which exhausted hot gases along the side of the machine at great velocity that actually provided a reactive force, pushing the plane forward.

Similar engines were developed during the 1930s and 40s. The first practical, true turbojet the Heinkel He 178 actually flew in 1939. Due to the conservatism of German Air Force authorities however and political maneuvering within the German military, this jet fighter was never to see service. The first operational jet aircraft to see action was the Messerschmitt Me 262, which first flew in combat in April, 1944, little over a year before Germany’s defeat.this technology was quickly employed by the U.S. Army Air Corps and Britains Royal Air Force. The British were actually the first to make jet engine technology available to the civilian market: the De Havilland Comet became the first commercial jet airliner around 1950.

Business aircraft had been around since the early 1930s, but it wasn’t until 1964 that the first small private jet was manufactured and offered to the general public. The Learjet 23 was actually based on a proposed fighter-jet design for the Swiss Air Force. The Swiss passed on the design, but William P. Lear saw its potential and with this aircraft, a new market for efficient, high-speed private jet charter was opened.

The Learjet 23 was followed by several more models, and competing companies entered the fray as well. Today, when you book your private jet charter, you’ll very likely be flying a Learjet 60, a Gulfstream IV or a Cessna Citation X, depending on your destination, needs and schedule.