A Glimpse of Things to Come

Gulfstream Aerospace announced that its second Gulfstream G800 flight-test aircraft had successfully ventured aloft.

The G800 departed the company’s home digs on Georgia’s Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport (SAV) at 09:27 EDT on the morning of Saturday, 15 July. During the three-hour, 26-minute test-flight, the aircraft attained a top-speed of Mach 0.935 (623.4-knots).

Gulfstream president Mark Burns set forth: “Gulfstream’s flight-test team continues to make advanced strides forward for our company. The G800 will bring the industry’s longest range to customers around the world, and we are seeing strong demand for this capability alongside the cabin comfort and quality Gulfstream is known for.”

The second G800 flight test aircraft is dedicated to the vetting of environmental control systems, avionics, and flight controls. The jet builds on the more than 1,600 test points already accomplished by the first G800 flight-test aircraft.

Mr. Burns continued: “Thanks to the design philosophy behind our next-generation fleet, the G800 is also benefiting from the excellent progress we continue to make in the Gulfstream G700 flight test program. This commonality helps us enhance efficiency and reliability for our customers, who are already seeing firsthand how well these aircraft perform.”

By dint of a dazzling nonstop range of up to eight-thousand-nautical-miles at 0.85 Mach, the G800 exceeds the operational radius of even Boeing’s 787-9 widebody airliner by an assertive 365-nautical-miles. On flights longer than 6,500-nautical-miles, the G800’s speed and efficiency combine to save time-conscious travelers as much as 1.5-hours.

Designed to seat up to 19 passengers, the G800 offers as many as four living areas—or three living areas and a dedicated crew compartment.

Gulfstream’s G700 and G800 are each capable of reaching maximum speeds of 0.925 Mach and service-ceilings of FL510. Up front, both aircraft afford pilots the collective advantages and superb situational awareness of Gulfstream’s Symmetry Flight Deck, multi-sensor synthetic vision suite, dual Heads Up Displays (HUD), and Gulfstream’s proprietary Predictive Landing Performance System. In-flight control of the G700 and G800 is via Gulfstream’s unique, electronically-linked active-control sidesticks.

Both the G700 and G800 aircraft are powered by Rolls-Royce’s Pearl series engines. Subject mills are evolutions of the famed British marque’s BR700 family of turbofan power-plants. Developed jointly by BMW and Rolls-Royce, BR700 series engines are manufactured in Dahlewitz, Germany by an entity known as Rolls-Royce Deutschland. The Pearl 700 is a direct descendant of the twin-shaft BR725 turbofan, but improves on its ancestor’s 16,900-lbf output with a take-off thrust rating of 18,250-lbf, and an accompanying reduction in fuel-consumption of three-to-five-percent.

FMI: www.gulfstream.com