Story ID: 
Flashback: Boeing enters the bizjet fray 
By: Curt Epstein
Caption: We look back at some memorable events and coverage from AIN's half-century-old archives.
Word Count: 286
With AIN Media Group's Aviation International News and its predecessor Aviation Convention News celebrating the company's 50th year of continuous publication this year, AIN’s editorial staff is going back through the archives each month to bring readers some interesting events that were covered over the past half-century.

REWIND: (July 1985) The Boeing Commercial Airplane Company, which for years has been lingering at ringside, finally climbed through the ropes and into the business jet ring. At the Paris Air Show the giant Seattle-based manufacturer of jet airliners announced that it was launching a business jet marketing effort.

Under the banner of “Corporate 77 Series,” Boeing will now be offering every one of its airliners new and used, from the 747 jumbo down to three models of its twin-engine 737s, to corporate aviation.

Principally the Corporate 77 effort will be concentrating on the 737 line-the 737-100, the 737-200 and the latest version, the 737-300. The Seattle manufacturer sees both the 200 and 300 versions of its model as direct competition for Gulfstream Aerospace’s present offering the Gulfstream III and its forthcoming Gulfstream IV.

Boeing will offer its airliners devoid of interiors and with no avionics, save that which has to be factory installed.

FASTFORWARD: Boeing began to sell airliners for private use in the mid-1980s, but it wasn’t until July 2, 1996 that the airframer in partnership with General Electric launched the Boeing Business Jet (BBJ) brand. It has delivered 251 bizliners: 189 737s, 16 747s, five 757s, eight 767s, seventeen 777s, and sixteen 787s.

Today, the company’s lineup includes the BBJ 737 Max family (737-7,-8,-9), the BBJ 787, and at the top of its range, the BBJ 777-8 and -9.