DUBAI—With long-awaited certification of the ultra-long-range G700 seemingly imminent, Gulfstream is using Dubai Airshow as the jumping-off point for a six-week demonstration tour of the aircraft covering the Middle East, Australia, New Zealand and several Asian nations.
Two G700s—aircraft 002 and 006—along with a G500 and G600 will participate in the initial demonstration phase in Abu Dhabi after Dubai Airshow. A single G700 will then continue for the longer tour according to Brian Dickerson, Gulfstream's chief pilot for large cabin aircraft demonstrations. The 5,300-nm-range G500 entered service in 2018, while the 6,600-nm-range G600 debuted in 2019.
“This is an experimental airplane, so it's not yet certified,” Dickerson says, referencing the G700. “The confidence at Gulfstream has in being able to do this says an awful lot about what the airplane is. We can take it on the road for six weeks and have the confidence that it’s not going to break,” Dickerson adds.
The combined fleet of demonstrator aircraft will be used to “show customers the advantages and the differences between our smallest airplane and our largest, and then after that we're going to continue with this airplane by itself,” Dickerson says. “We will go all the way out through Australia and New Zealand, Thailand, Korea, Japan, Singapore, and will be on the road for about six weeks total.”
The G700 test aircraft have logged a combined 5,000 hours in the certification and development program, the latter stages of which have demonstrated the capability for longer range and higher speed than forecast. Flight tests indicated range could be increased by around 250 nm to 7,750 nm at Mach 0.85, while max speed is up to Mach 0.935.
The additional range is derived from combined efficiency improvements in both the engine and airframe, Dickerson says. “The Rolls-Royce Pearl 700 engines are a little more efficient than we thought. The reduced drag we have on the airplane combined with the increased fuel efficiency of the engines means more range without any increase in fuel. The fuel capacity is exactly what it was when we started the program. But increasing the range by 250 miles, especially at the end of a trip, is a big deal.”
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