A little more than two years after Gulfstream achieved certification for the ultra-long-range G650, an airplane that held the crown as the fastest civilian airplane in the world until Cessna's Citation X+ reclaimed the spot this year, the Savannah, Georgia-based company announced it has delivered the 100th airplane in the series. That is a very impressive number of $65 million dollar business jets in such a short amount of time.
Some of the airplanes now rolling off the production line include Gulfstream G650ERs, airplanes capable of traveling as far as 7,500 nm non-stop, the first one of which was delivered to a customer last week way ahead of Gulfstream's targeted 2015 schedule. The extended range G650ER was first announced in May at the European Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition in Geneva, Switzerland.
While it is no longer the speediest bizjet, with a top speed of Mach 0.925 the G650 has claimed no less than 42 speed records in its short lifespan, said Gulfstream's senior vice president of worldwide sales and marketing Scott Neal, including a round-the-world speed record achieved last year.
Needless to say, Gulfstream's executive team is thrilled with the luxury G650's successful introduction to the market. "It truly set a new world standard for performance, range, speed, safety and comfort when it entered into service in December 2012," said Gulfstream's president Larry Flynn.
Get exclusive online content like this delivered straight to your inbox by signing up for our free enewsletter.
We welcome your comments on flyingmag.com. In order to maintain a respectful environment, we ask that all comments be on-topic, respectful and spam-free. All comments made here are public and may be republished by Flying.
Subscribe to Our Newsletter
Get the latest FLYING stories delivered directly to your inbox