Establishes Its 15th City-Pair Speed Record
The ultra-long-range Gulfstream G550
has set another city-pair speed record – this time between
Newark, NJ, and Tel Aviv, Israel. The G550 flew the
5,031-nautical-mile route in 9 hours and 52 minutes, thereby
establishing its 15 th city-pair speed record since it first
entered service nearly two years ago. Gulfstream is awaiting
official recognition of this city-pair speed record by the NAA.
The G550 took off from Newark International Airport at 8:16 p.m.
local time on Aug. 28. It flew 5,031 nautical miles at an average
cruise speed of Mach 0.86, landing 9 hours, 52 minutes later at
1:08 p.m. local time on Aug. 29 at Ben Gurion Airport.
“This new speed record demonstrates the G550’s
exceptional range and performance, which have become the hallmark
of this outstanding business jet,” said Bryan Moss,
president, Gulfstream. “But there’s even more to this
plane than reliability and performance. While the pilots were
flying for a new city-pair speed record, the passengers remained
productive, conducting business as they would at their place of
business.”
In addition to face-to-face and telephone communication,
in-flight G550 passengers also can send and receive e-mail, monitor
the stock market, surf the Internet or perform any other Web-based
task, at the same speed found in most corporate offices through
Gulfstream’s ultra-high-speed Broad Band Multi-Link™
(BBML) service. Gulfstream is the only manufacturer that
exclusively builds business jets to offer this service, which is 10
times faster than the most widely used in-flight, high-speed data
service. While the service is not available over the North Atlantic
region until the first quarter of next year, the BBML system is
fully operational over North America and will become fully
operational over Europe and the Middle East before the end of this
year.
Gulfstream Senior International Captain Hank Gibson served as
pilot-in-command and International Captain Tony Briotta served as
second-in-command. Also onboard were Carl Schomberg, production
test pilot, who served as first officer, Gulfstream Chief Flight
Attendant Sally Greer and five passengers.
Today, there are 59 aircraft that comprise the in-service G550
fleet, which collectively have flown more than 25,000 flight hours
and completed some 10,000 takeoffs and landings.