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.
“Its full fuel payload is about 2300 pounds.” I guess it must be designed to take off from small airports. Otherwise it might struggle to make a long taxi before running low on fuel…
Full fuel is 49,400 pounds. With a load of 49,400 pounds of fuel it has about 2300 pounds payload capacity. That much fuel will take you around the patch and then some, even taxiing a long distance prior to takeoff.