Kid Rock's Bombardier Challenger 600 N71KR flies from Nashville to Tuscaloosa in 36 minutes

Kid Rock's Bombardier Challenger 600, tail number N71KR, flew from John C Tune Airport in Nashville to Tuscaloosa National Airport on Saturday, October 24, 2026. The flight departed at 17:18 UTC and landed at 17:54 UTC. It spent 36 minutes in the air.

The great-circle distance between the two airports is 186 nm, or 214 miles. The aircraft averaged a ground speed of 308 kt and reached a top speed of 451 kt. Its highest altitude was 22,000 ft. Celebplanes estimates the flight burned about 169 gallons of jet fuel and released about 1,627 kg of CO2, roughly the same as driving a car 4,026 miles. The Bombardier Challenger 600 is a Large-class jet that can fly 3,300 nm without stopping, seats up to 14 passengers, and cruises at Mach 0.82.

This was the second tracked landing at Tuscaloosa for N71KR in the tracked window. The previous one was on September 26, 2026, 28 days earlier. Kid Rock's home base is Oakland County International Airport in Pontiac, Michigan. His usual destinations include Nashville, Las Vegas, Marfa, and Austin. In the 30 days before this flight, the aircraft visited five airports and flew about 3,268 nm. Two other tracked aircraft landed at Tuscaloosa in the 24 hours before this flight: a Cessna 680 Citation Sovereign linked to Kalen DeBoer, and a Bombardier Global Express XRS linked to Jared Isaacman.

Kid Rock, born Robert Ritchie, is a Detroit-area musician with multiple platinum albums and a history of outspoken political commentary. The flight from Nashville, a city where Kid Rock owns property and performs regularly, to Tuscaloosa fits a pattern of short regional hops.

The aircraft had been on the ground in Nashville for about eight days before this trip. Its previous tracked flight was a 2-hour, 1-minute leg from Teterboro to Nashville on October 16. The Challenger 600, in service since 1980, was the first business jet with a supercritical wing.

The aircraft's ceiling is 41,000 ft. The flight used about 6 percent of the plane's total range. The departure airport, John C Tune, has a longest runway of 6,001 ft and sits at 495 ft elevation. The arrival airport, Tuscaloosa National, has a longest runway of 6,498 ft and an elevation of 170 ft. The distance from Kid Rock's home base at Oakland County International to Tuscaloosa is 601 nm.

In the 30 days before this flight, N71KR flew 6 flights totaling 8.8 hours in the air. Those flights produced an estimated 23,617 kg of CO2. The longest leg in that period was from Camarillo to Nashville on September 25, covering 1,576 nm. The aircraft's estimated fuel burn is 280 US gallons per hour.

Among the 40 tracked flights in the window from June 20 to October 16, the most common destination was Nashville, with 13 landings. Flint and Gaylord each saw 3 landings. Recent flights by the same owner include a 44-minute leg from Dulles to Teterboro on October 16 and a 1-hour, 21-minute leg from Nashville to Dulles on October 15.

This flight adds one more short leg to N71KR's record. The aircraft continues to operate from its usual network of airports.