Flight Test Aircraft 'Work' 40 Hours a Week, 50 Weeks a Year

Gulfstream Aerospace completed 2,090 flight-test hours during 2004 in support of its product development efforts. By the end of last year, Gulfstream's Flight Test organization nearly doubled the number of flight hours its test aircraft flew just two years earlier, and nearly quadrupled the number of test hours flown in 2001.

In 2003, Gulfstream's flight-test aircraft flew 1,733 flight hours. In 2002, the aircraft flew 1,057 flight hours and in 2001, they flew 542 flight hours.

"Our test aircraft flew, on average, every hour of every working day this past year," said Pres Henne, senior vice president, programs, engineering and test, Gulfstream. "The professionalism and skill of our experimental pilots, flight-tests engineers, maintenance technicians, inspectors and instrumentation engineers enabled us to fly these aircraft methodically and safely - each and every flight."

Last year, Gulfstream's operated as few as three and as many as 10 test aircraft. The Flight Test team supported two new product development programs - one for the large-cabin, long-range G450 business jet and the other for the large-cabin, mid-range G350 - as well as follow-on certification programs for the Planeview flight deck and enhancements and reliability improvements to the GV.

During the summer, NASA teamed with members of Gulfstream's Flight Test department to successfully test its Synthetic Vision System (SVS) and its Runway incursion Prevention System (RIPS), both of which are in the initial evaluation phase. In addition, the test team completed development and certification of a wing-load alleviation system and evaluated prototype aerodynamic configurations for future special mission aircraft.

E-I-C Note: Wow... they actually PAY pilots to fly Gulfstreams? (You'd a thought that flying such beautiful machines was compensation enough, eh? Grin)

FMI: www.gulfstream.com