Despite the lingering recession, in late November, Gulfstream reached yet another 2009 milestone when company test pilots made the successful first flight of the newest Gulfstream business jet, the ultralong-range G650.
The flight was unusually short, just 12 minutes, as the pilots, Jake Howard and Tom Horne, along with flight engineer Bill Osborne, returned for a precautionary landing shortly after noticing on departure what Gulfstream said was a “slight vibration” in a gear door. Gulfstream did not expect the issue to cause any delay in its ambitious flight-test schedule.
