In the era of the globe-girding, ultra-long-range business jet it’s a record that was sure to fall at some point. Gulfstream Aerospace took the honors recently by setting two unique city-pair speed records, making just one stop for fuel in between.
A Gulfstream G650ER took off from White Plains, New York, with three passengers and four crew members on board. It flew 6,939 nautical miles to Beijing at an average speed of Mach 0.87 for a total flight time of 13 hours, 20 minutes. The jet then continued another 6,572 nm/12,171 km to Savannah, Georgia, accomplishing the mission at an average speed of Mach 0.89 for a total flight time of 12 hours. The aircraft landed both times with fuel in excess of NBAA IFR reserves.
“There isn’t another business jet capable of this mission,” said Scott Neal, senior vice president, Worldwide Sales and Marketing for Gulfstream. “This flight proves just how powerful a machine the G650ER is. We promised customers an aircraft that could take them farther faster than any other. We delivered on that promise.”
Pending approval by the U.S. National Aeronautic Association, the city-pair records will be sent to the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale in Switzerland for recognition as world records, Gulfstream said.
In addition to the two pending records, the extended-range G650ER set two speed records during flight testing last year when the test aircraft flew from Los Angeles to Melbourne, Australia, in 14 hours, 58 minutes and then flew from Hong Kong to Teterboro, New Jersey, in 14 hours, 7 minutes.
The G650ER can travel 7,500 nm at Mach 0.85 and 6,400 nm at Mach 0.90. It has a maximum speed of Mach 0.925.
It’s true no other business jet can match the G650ER’s feat. Bombardier is developing a longer-range version of its original Global Express dubbed the Global 8000 that promises a max range of 7,900 nm. Which begs the question, once you can fly halfway around the world nonstop, would you ever need to fly any farther?
Current G650 owners and order-holders, Gulfstream noted, can upgrade their original G650 to G650ER status through special mods.
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