I flew on a $20 million Embraer Legacy 500 private jet and understand why Jackie Chan bought one

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I flew on a $20 million Embraer Legacy 500 private jet and understand why Jackie Chan bought one

Embraer Legacy 500

Benjamin Zhang/Business Insider

Me and the Embraer Legacy 500.

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  • The Embraer Legacy 500 is a midsize private jet introduced in 2014
  • It costs $20 million and can fly non-stop between New York and LA.
  • The Legacy 500 seats between eight and 12 passengers.

Every product needs a good pitchman. For the Embraer Legacy 500, that person is movie legend, Jackie Chan. The kung fu star and Academy Award winner is a former Embraer brand ambassador and owns a small fleet of the company's private jets, including the first Legacy 500 in delivered to China.

According to Embraer, Chan uses the $20 million Embraer 500 for shorter trips within China while a larger airliner-based Legacy 650 is used for trans-oceanic flights.

As a lifelong fan of Jackie Chan, I was curious to see what drew the actor to the Legacy 500. Recently, Business Insider got the chance to take a test flight on board one of the Embraer's demonstrator at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey.

The afternoon flight took us north over the upstate New York and New England before return to New Jersey.

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Here's a closer look at our flight on the Embraer Legacy 500.