Both Families Achieve Significant Milestones

If it was the family car, you might be getting concerned when the numbers started creeping up to a million. But in this case, not so much. Two families of Gulfstream business jets — the Gulfstream GV and Gulfstream GIV — recently achieved flight-hour milestones. The 412 aircraft in the GV family, which comprises the ultra-long-range Gulfstream G550, G500 and GV, have surpassed 1.1 million flight hours since the first GV entered service on June 30, 1997. The fleet leader accounted for 13,107 of those hours. The GIV family, consisting of 669 G450, G350, G400, G300, GIV and GIV-SP aircraft, has achieved nearly 3.5 million flight hours since the first GIV entered service on June 8, 1987. The fleet leader accounted for 18,403 of those hours.

“The milestones are very gratifying to all of us here at Gulfstream,” said Pres Henne, senior vice president, Programs, engineering and Test, Gulfstream. “They reflect the safety, performance and reliability of these aircraft.” The in-service G550/G500 fleet has a 12-month dispatch reliability rate of 99.88 percent. In addition, the G550 has close to 40 city-pair speed records. The most notable is a 14.5-hour, 7,301-nautical-mile nonstop flight from Seoul, South Korea, to Orlando, FL, on Oct. 3, 2003. That record was set less than two weeks after the aircraft entered service.

In a Gulfstream first, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued the G550 type and production certificates on the same day, Aug. 14, 2003. The first G550 was delivered on Sept. 17, 2003. The G500 was certified by the FAA in December 2003 and was delivered to its first customer in May 2004. The G550/G500 Development Team was awarded the Robert J. Collier Trophy in 2003 for its technological breakthrough. The FAA issued a type certificate (TC) for the G450 on Aug. 12, 2004, while the G350 received its TC from the FAA on Nov. 1, 2004.

The in-service G450/G350 fleet has a 12-month dispatch reliability rate of 99.87 percent. The G450 set its first intercontinental speed record 10 days after it entered service, flying 3,550 nautical miles from Chicago to London in 7 hours, 19 minutes, at an average speed of Mach 0.85.

FMI: www.gulfstream.com