Gulfstream has rolled out its final G200 super midsize business jet at the company's Dallas completion centre, making way for the soon-to-be-certified G280 in the business jet maker's mid-cabin portfolio early in 2012.
Along with the G150, the G200 (and now the G280) are constructed by Gulfstream partner Israeli Aerospace Industries (IAI) in Tel Aviv and flown to Dallas in a green state for interior completion and paint.
IAI subsidiary Galaxy Aerospace began building the G200, then known as the Galaxy business jet, in 1998. Gulfstream, which bought Galaxy Aerospace in 2001, calls the twinjet the first super midsize (typically meaning the aircraft has a stand-up cabin) on the market.
Gulfstream may have lost a bit of marketing pizzazz in the segue between the G200 and G280 however.
The G280 had earlier been called the G250, a model that was to pick up where the G200 has left off with the completion of aircraft number 250. In a nod to the huge potential for future business jet sales in the China however, Gulfstream in July changed the aircraft's name to the G280. Flightglobal reported that the number 250 can be translated into Mandarin as "stupid" or "idiotic".
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Source: Flight International
