GULFSTREAMHAS completed a non-stop, 12,860km (6,950nm) demonstration flight with the Gulfstream V long-range business jet. The company says that data from the 14h 48min flight, with an uncompleted aircraft carrying four crew and three passengers and cruising at Mach 0.8 at altitudes up to 51,000ft (15,500m), confirm the 12,000km design-range capability of the GV when fully outfitted and carrying eight passengers and four crew.
The 10 January flight, using test aircraft 505, was the first time in the development programme that the aircraft's range capability had been fully demonstrated. Gulfstream says that the aircraft was flown on a route from the company's Savannah, Georgia, headquarters via New York; Bangor, Maine; Duluth, Minnesota; Seattle; Mission Bay, California; Corpus Christi, Texas; Little Rock, Arkansas; Nashville, Tennessee; Atlanta, Georgia; and then back to Savannah.
Aircraft 505 is the first production GV and is scheduled for interior-fitting and delivery to a customer later this year, after completion of the flight testing which is required to gain full US type certification. Provisional certification was granted in December 1996, enabling deliveries of customer aircraft to Gulfstream's Savannah completion centre to begin.
Source: Flight International
