By Skies Magazine | May 24, 2023 Estimated reading time 4 minutes, 52 seconds.
During this year’s European Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (EBACE) in Geneva, Switzerland, Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. shared that its all-new G700 jet is continuing to make progress towards U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certification and subsequent customer deliveries.
The aircraft recently accomplished several certification test points in coordination with the FAA. The first was the demonstration of “excellent stability and control in takeoff, landing, and climb during field performance and flying qualities trials,” which took place over a testing period of two months at Cecil Airport in Jacksonville, Florida.
The G700 also finished water ingestion testing at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, with touchdown and taxi maneuvers in standing water at takeoff and landing speeds ranging from 60 to 120 knots.
Moreover, during flyover noise testing, the G700 demonstrated sound levels “well below FAA regulations,” the OEM said.
“The G700 continues to exceed our expectations throughout all facets of the flight test program,” said Mark Burns, president of Gulfstream. “At the same time, even more customers around the globe are seeing the real-world performance features and benefits the aircraft provides in terms of efficiency, speed and safety, while experiencing the immense comfort of the cabin firsthand.”
Gulfstream was originally targeting the fourth quarter of 2022 for initial deliveries of the G700, but that target has slipped to mid-2023. The international launch customer for the G700 is Qatar Executive, while Flexjet is the first North American customer for the type.
Powered by the Rolls-Royce Pearl 700 engine, the G700 has a range of 7,500 nautical miles with a maximum speed of Mach 0.925. The aircraft features a customizable cabin with up to five living areas, and can accommodate up to 19 passengers and sleep up to 13.
The G700 is equipped with the Symmetry Flight Deck, which features active control sidesticks. It also has intuitive touch-screen avionics with Phase-of-Flight intelligence, which reduce both pilot workload and aircraft start-up time, as well as a Combined Vision System (shown on dual head-up displays) for increased pilot situational awareness. Lastly, the G700 is equipped with Gulfstream’s Predictive Landing Performance System, which warns pilots of potential runway excursions so they can adjust approaches accordingly.
Since the G700 was first unveiled in October 2019, the program has achieved numerous milestones, including the first G700 flight in February 2020, the introduction of six aircraft to the flight test program, the use of a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) blend on 83 percent of G700 test flights, and the completion of a G700 world tour — which saw the aircraft achieve 25 speed records.
The world tour wrapped up in early 2023, and since then, the G700 flight test aircraft have achieved several more speed records around the world. Heading into EBACE 2023, the G700 program has amassed more than 40 speed records total — the latest of which are pending approval by the U.S. National Aeronautic Association and the Swiss Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.
