This was written by Paul Pena, a blind folk singer from Cape Cod. Pena played the Newport Folk Festival in 1969, but was unable to launch a successful career.

For much of his life, Pena's royalties from writing this were his only income.

"Jet Airliner" is a song composed by Paul Pena in 1973 and popularized by the Steve Miller Band in 1977.

Pena wrote and recorded "Jet Airliner" in 1973 for his New Train album. However, New Train was not released until 2000, due to conflicts between him and his label.

Steve Miller heard Pena's unreleased New Train album through Ben Sidran, who produced it, and who was formerly in Miller's band.

Miller recorded "Jet Airliner" in 1975 during sessions for the Fly Like an Eagle album, but the song was not issued until 1977, when it was released as a single and was included on Miller's Book of Dreams album.

The lyrics of the Steve Miller Band version are slightly different from the Pena original.

Miller's performance of the main riff also is slightly different from Pena's original, which has a more funky edge to it.

The song is also notable for helping to popularize the phrase "keep on keepin' on", previously found in John Lennon's song "Old Dirt Road" (1974) and Bob Dylan's songs "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" (1971) and "Tangled Up in Blue" (1975).

The single reached No. 8 on the Billboard chart. In Canada, the song spent two weeks at No. 3.

On classic rock radio, Miller's "Jet Airliner" is generally played in tandem with "Threshold", the all-synthesizer instrumental that precedes it on Book of Dreams and the Greatest Hits 1974–78 compilation.

The radio version substitutes the line, "Funky kicks going down in the city" for "Funky s--t going down in the city."