Gulfstream says it is maintaining its test schedule for the flagship G650 despite the crash of a test airplane that killed four people in April and the resulting two-month suspension of flight testing. The company says it is on track for certification “later this year” and will deliver 10 to 12 of the $65 million planes by the end of the year. “We’re on track and moving steadily toward certification later this year,” Pres Henne, Gulfstream senior vice president for programs, engineering and test, told the Savannah Morning News. “We’ve accomplished a great deal in the past two months. The aircraft continue to perform extremely well.”
The four test aircraft have flown 1760 of 2200 hours in the test program and have ticked off most of the significant items on the test schedule. The aircraft will be in a league of its own for at least a couple of years with its combination of long legs (7,000 nm) and high speed (Mach .925 max). Bombardier has answered the challenge with two new models that will be available starting in 2016 for the Global 7000 and 2017 for the Global 8000.
