Ed Dahlberg got 40 calls in one day when he put a Gulfstream G650 up for sale in February. Thats unusual for a private jet -- especially when the asking price tops the $64.5 million on the sticker.

We believe this planes going to bring north of $75 million, said Dahlberg, president of Manassas, Virginia-based Emerald Aviation Inc. and part-owner of the G650.

Barely 15 months after its debut, the worlds biggest and fastest business jet is a corporate status symbol, with owners as high profile as Exxon Mobil Corp., Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Qualcomm Inc. The waiting list is almost four years long for a factory-fresh model, whetting appetites among tycoons and chief executive officers when a used G650 hits the market.

Its the must-have airplane if youre in the top end of the spectrum, said Steve Varsano, founder of London-based Jet Business, whos sold two pre-owned G650s since November for more than $70 million each to buyers he wouldnt identify.

G650s are also must-have for Gulfstream parent General Dynamics Corp., the tank and submarine maker squeezed by shrinking U.S. defense budgets. The jets helped boost 2013 aerospace revenue 17 percent to $8.12 billion, while combat systems unit revenue fell 23 percent to $6.12 billion.

The G650 is doing exceptionally well, said Peter Arment, a Sterne, Agee & Leach Inc. analyst who has a buy rating on Falls Church, Virginia-based General Dynamics. The demand for this plane is going to remain very strong.

Large, luxury aircraft are the bright spot in a $21 billion private-jet market recovering unevenly from the 2008-09 financial crisis. While orders remain weak for small, personal models like the Mustang from Textron Inc.s Cessna, corporate fleet managers and billionaires are shopping again for big planes able to make transoceanic routes.

Qualcomms G650 flew round trip between California and Barcelona before Februarys Mobile World Congress in the Spanish city, where then-CEO Paul Jacobs collected an industry award. That jaunt, as chronicled by airline-data tracker FlightAware, was well within the jets advertised range of 7,000 nautical miles (12,964 kilometers), enough to reach Beijing from New York without refueling.

Propelled by Rolls-Royce engines tucked on either side of the rear of the fuselage, the G650 can reach 627 miles an hour at 30,000 feet (9,100 meters), about 93 percent of the speed of sound. It seats as many as 18 people. To ease jet lag, the cabin air pressure is kept higher than on typical airplanes.

On a recent flight from Phoenix on a G650 owned by Honeywell International Inc., takeoff thrust pressed passengers into soft leather seats as the engines whispered.

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Exxon to Wal-Mart Flying G650 Turn Jet Into Status Symbol