Flexjet’s opaque aircraft order

opinion

by Yves Le Marquand

October 6, 2025

Cars looked better in the good old days. You had ridiculous tail fins, more chrome than in a professional kitchen and huge sticking-out ornaments on the bonnet. But road safety campaigners did not feel that exciting styling made up for the risk of jaywalkers being kebabbed. So they ended up looking the same. Exceptions, like Tesla’s Cybertruck, prove the rule.

The same process happened with commercial aircraft. As understanding of aerodynamics improved you lost the third wing, the second cabin and canards. You do still get occasional standouts like the HondaJet with engines on the wing and the Pilatus PC-24 which can land on an iceberg. But it is harder for non-expert buyers to distinguish between aircraft.

Otto Aerospace does not have this problem.

Its Phantom 3500 has a genuinely unique feature that stands out from the others. There are no windows in the cabin. Instead, passengers are provided with what Otto calls “supernatural vision” using camera feeds and 72-inch HD screens where windows are traditionally found.

This week Flexjet placed an order for 300 Phantom 3500s. Mike Silvestro, CEO of Flexjet, tells CJI that the Phantom 3500 represents a “bold step into the future”.

To be fair, there is more to the Phantom 3500 than the windowless tube. Otto says that the super-midsize jet’s big advantage is its use of laminar flow. This streamlines airflow over wings and other surfaces, where air molecules move in parallel layers with minimal mixing, greatly reducing drag and improving fuel efficiency.

“When you look at the aircraft’s efficiency, combining speed, range, sustainability and fuel consumption – it is a potential game changer,” says Silvestro.

Whether it is driverless cars or windowless aircraft, Silvestro accepts that there will always be sceptics. “This idea falls into that category. We will see some baby steps in the industry before this aircraft enters service in 2030,” he says. “For example, some manufacturers may introduce smart windows or visual displays that could replace one or two windows as a half-step toward this concept. We will have to see how consumers react.”

Flexjet plans to maintain its fleet of Phantom 3500s itself. “A beautiful airplane does not do any good if you can’t keep it flying,” he says. “OEMs have the inherent challenge of throughput, whereas our facilities serve one master: us. Being able to do our own work on our own fleet of Phantoms is critical and Otto was very agreeable to that.”

Flexjet likes ordering innovative aircraft. It is a launch customer for Eve Air Mobility’s eVTOL and also played an important role in spinning out the company from Embraer. At NBAA-BACE in 2015 Flexjet placed an order for 20 Aerion AS2 supersonic jets (which also had innovative laminar flow technology). Aerion stopped operating in 2021.

Paul Touw, the CEO of Otto, has previously negotiated aircraft contracts as a buyer after founding XOJET (now part of Vista) in 2006. He also created Stellar Labs the charter platform.

Although the details of the agreement are confidential, Silvestro says a deposit has been paid to Otto. Flexjet also has options allowing it to order more aircraft.

“The payment structure follows a fairly standard model of pre-delivery payments tied to milestones,” he explains. “With a clean-sheet design, everything has to be tied to progress and milestones because the calendar not mean anything.”

Silvestro and Touw both know that hitting milestones is not easy. Otto is aiming for 2027 for its maiden flight and then 2030 for entry into service. Who knows, by then all aircraft fuselages might look the same from the outside.