Gulfstream’s G650
By Mark Huber - April 1, 2010
Gulfstream's G650, which the company will start delivering in 2012, will be the world’s fastest and longest range business jet. Its tall and wide-bodied cabin–the largest in the company’s fleet–will boast the latest in comfort and convenience features.
The $64.5 million model, which first flew last year, is both a significant departure and a natural progression from the manufacturer’s previous line of large jets–airplanes whose lineage and fuselage diameter can be traced back to the Grumman Gulfstream II of the mid-1960s. By 2003, that original GII design had evolved into the $48 million G550, which mated the latest bells and whistles to an airframe-engine combination that can carry eight passengers and a crew of four 6,750 nautical miles nonstop.
Power on the G650 comes from a pair of 16,100-pound-thrust Rolls-Royce BR725 engines, which are more efficient than their predecessor, the BR710. The new engines produce almost 5 percent more takeoff thrust while reducing nitrogen oxide emissions by 5 percent and smoke by 10 percent. They are also 33-percent quieter than the BR710s, reducing noise levels to 17 decibels below Stage 4 standards. The BR725s have an impressive 10,000-hour recommended time between overhauls, the equivalent of 24 years of average corporate operation.
The new engines, increased use of material bonding, composite materials and more monolithic structures, combined with more efficient wing design, translate into better aerodynamics, weight savings and greater efficiencies in manufacture and operation. For example, the G650’s 28- by 20.5-inch windows–the industry’s largest– are 16 percent bigger than the G550’s but use 78 percent fewer parts, thereby cutting assembly time in half. (The oval windows, incidentally, are spaced farther apart than the G550’s and are slightly higher on the fuselage to improve viewing angle.)
This design philosophy means not only lower fuel burns but impressive potential travel-time savings as well. For example, Gulfstream says the G650 can fly the 6,370 nautical miles from Dubai to Chicago 88 minutes faster than any other civilian jet. The aircraft can also land in primitive environments and adverse weather thanks to integrated head-up and synthetic-vision systems that include the
Gulfstream enhanced-vision system, the synthetic-vision primary flight display system and head-up display.
These systems work together to give pilots a view of terrain, obstacles and runways, regardless of the weather. The EVS uses a forward-looking infrared camera that captures actual ground images and projects them on the pilot’s head-up display, while the synthetic-vision system employs 3-D color terrain images from an onboard database.
The G650 can go where even the most sophisticated airliners cannot. Gulfstream didn’t want to make the jet so large that it couldn’t land in places that ban aircraft over 100,000 pounds, such as Aspen, Colo.; Sun Valley, Idaho; and Teterboro, N.J. Nor did it want to have to rely on ground-based systems such as power carts.
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