Gulfstream G700 Flies
Gulfstream’s new flagship G700 business jet had its first flight on Friday. The flight lasted two hours and 32 minutes and covered all the basic flight characteristics and system checks….
A Gulfstream G700 takes off from Savannah-Hilton Head International Airport on February 14, 2020, marking the first flight of the new business jet and official start of its flight-test program. Gulfstream is a subsidiary of General Dynamics.
Gulfstream’s new flagship G700 business jet had its first flight on Friday. The flight lasted two hours and 32 minutes and covered all the basic flight characteristics and system checks. The company says it’s on track to deliver airplanes in 2022 under an aggressive development campaign that it also managed to keep under wraps for months. By the time the new model was announced at NBAA-BACE last October, the five test articles were already under construction. They’re all finished now and the structural test airplane has already finished load testing. The first airplane to fly was also the first one finished and carries the tail number N700GA. It flew on a mix of Jet-A and sustainable aviation fuel.
The G700 is the largest aircraft the company has built and is 110 feet long with interior configurations for up to 19 passengers. The interior can be spit up into as many as five zones and a private suite is one of the options. It has a maximum range of 7500 nautical miles and will cruise at up to .925 Mach. Maximum takeoff weight is more than 100,000 pounds. Its full fuel payload is about 2300 pounds. It's powered by a pair of Rolls-Royce Pearl engines.
