Look Out Below …

Gulfstream’s clean-sheet, next-generation Gulfstream G500 has been granted FAA certification to undertake steep-approach operations. Thus certified, the aircraft is authorized to operate at challenging airports such as London City (LCY), Switzerland’s Sion (SIR) and Lugano (LUG), New Jersey’s Teterboro (TEB), Orange County’s John Wayne (SNA), and Florida’s Naples (APF).

The G500 proved its low-speed handling and short-field capabilities in 2021 via landings at several of the aforementioned airports.

Gulfstream president Mark Burns stated: “Our customers already benefit from the revolutionary performance and efficiency of the G500. We are now pleased to deliver steep-approach capability as well, providing additional flexibility by unlocking access to even more destinations around the world.”

Instrument pilots know, presumably, that the majority of instrument approaches—and visual approaches for that matter—are flown at glideslope angles of 3°. Angles up to 3.5° are considered routine and within the capability of certified airplanes. Approach angles greater than 3.5° but less than 4.5° are unlikely to prove difficult during normal aircraft operations and, accordingly, necessitate no specific certification requirements. Approach angles of 4.5° or greater, however, are defined as steep approaches, and aircraft operators intent upon flying such are regulatorily obligated to obtain governing agency (FAA, EASA, etc.) certification prior to doing so.

Gulfstream’s G500 offers best-in-class performance and advanced safety features the likes of Gulfstream’s Symmetry Flight Deck, which comprises electronically-linked Active Control Sidesticks (ACSs) developed by BAE Systems. Subject sidesticks move in concert, allowing left- and right-seat pilots to observe and feel not only each other’s control inputs, but to feel force-feedback programmed to match prevailing flight conditions and aircraft attitudes and configurations. BAE’s ACSs was developed over a period of time measurable in years and is installed on a number of military aircraft. The system’s application on Gulfstream’s G500 instantiates its first on a commercial aircraft.

The G500 features, also, the one-hundred-percent fresh air, lowest-in-class cabin altitude, whisper-quiet sound levels, and abundant natural light characteristic of the proprietary Gulfstream Cabin Experience. The aircraft seats up to 19 passengers, sleeps up to eight, and is capable of flying 5,300-nautical-miles at Mach 0.85 (566-knots) or 4,500-nautical-miles at Mach 0.90 (600-knots). Aggressive power-lever application—though not recommended—will urge the Gulfstream G500 to its Vne of Mach 0.925 (616-knots). All told, the aircraft holds nearly sixty city-pair speed records.

Globally, upwards of 110 G500s are currently in service.

FMI: www.gulfstream.com