WHY? Because They CAN... Three Records and More than 13,000 NM in Eight Days

The ultra-long-range Gulfstream G550 business-jet aircraft recently established three new city-pair records, bringing the total number of records established by Gulfstream-operated G550s in 2006 to ten. The three most recent records were established during an eight-day period in December.

On Dec. 13, 2006 , the G550 took off from Luis Muñoz Marin International Airport in San Juan , Puerto Rico at 7:43 p.m. local time. Gulfstream senior international captain Ray Wellington and Gulfstream experimental test pilot Scott Martin flew the aircraft 5,841 nautical miles at an average cruise speed of Mach 0.83, landing at Cape Town International Airport in South Africa the following day at 1:55 p.m. local time with 5,000 pounds of fuel remaining. Flight attendant Linda Barr assisted the 12 passengers who were onboard for the 12-hour, 11-minute flight.

The same flight crew and nine passengers boarded the G550 three days later on Dec. 17 and took off from Cape Town International at 9:18 a.m. local time. The G550 flew 3,677 nautical miles into headwinds averaging 46 knots and at an average cruise speed of Mach 0.80, landing eight hours and 55 minutes later at 1:15 p.m. local time at Capitan Corbeta C.A. Curbelo International Airport in Maldonado, Uruguay.

On a Dec. 20 return flight to Cape Town, G550 pilots Martin and Wellington, flight attendant Barr and one passenger took off from Capitan Corbeta C.A. Curbelo International at 8:21 a.m. local time. The business jet flew eastbound with an average tailwind of 57 knots and an average cruise speed of Mach 0.85, flying 3,610 nautical miles and landing six hours and 51 minutes later at 7:12 p.m. the same day in Cape Town.

Gulfstream has submitted applications to the National Aeronautic Association to confirm each of these new city-pair records.

FMI: www.gulfstream.com, www.generaldynamics.com