Gulfstream Aerospace, a wholly owned subsidiary of General Dynamics, recently rolled out the 200th Gulfstream G550/G500 at its manufacturing plant in Savannah.  The business jet will now be outfitted and painted at the company's completion facility in Long Beach, Calif.  Gulfstream also has completion facilities for large-cabin aircraft in Appleton, Wis., Brunswick, Ga., and Savannah. 

"The roll-out of this aircraft represents a significant milestone," said Joe Lombardo, president, Gulfstream.  "In less than five years, our work force has assembled 200 aircraft of the G550/G500 family.  This roll-out reflects the hard work, dedication, and innovation of Gulfstream's employees, as well as the popularity of the aircraft in the business-aviation industry."

The G550/G500 was officially introduced on Sept. 9, 2002, in Orlando, Fla.  In a first for Gulfstream, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued the Type and Production certificates for the G550 on the same day, Aug. 14, 2003. A Type Certificate indicates the FAA has approved the design of an aircraft, while a Production Certificate confirms a manufacturer's production processes comply with FAA regulations.

The first G550 was subsequently delivered on Sept. 17, 2003, while its sister ship, the G500, was certified by the FAA on Dec. 8, 2003, and delivered to its first customer on May 20, 2004. In the 100th anniversary year of powered flight, the G550/G500 Development Team was honored with the 2003 Robert J. Collier Trophy by the National Aeronautic Association for its technological break-through in aviation.  The trophy is the most prestigious aviation award in the United States.

The current in-service G550/G500 fleet of 172 aircraft has a 12-month dispatch reliability rate of 99.87 percent.  In addition, the G550 has established close to 40 city-pair speed records.  The most notable is a 14.5-hour, 7,301-nautical-mile nonstop flight from Seoul, South Korea, to Orlando, Fla., on Oct. 3, 2003.  That flight took place less than two weeks after the aircraft entered service.  The Gulfstream G550 and G500 business-jet fleet recently surpassed 200,000 flight hours.

The G550 is the first civil aircraft to receive a Type Certificate issued by the FAA that includes an Enhanced Vision System (EVS) as standard equipment on an aircraft.  The Gulfstream EVS provides actual, real-time images detected by an infrared camera mounted to the nose of the aircraft and viewed by the pilot on the Head-Up Display (HUD).

The aircraft's cockpit was the first to feature PlaneView®, an integrated avionics suite incorporating the Honeywell Primus Epic architecture and display system.  The PlaneView® flight deck was designed by pilots and engineers to improve safety by reducing pilot workload and improving pilot situational awareness.  Its four 14-inch liquid crystal displays provide flight-critical information in an easy-to-see format.

In January 2008, Gulfstream became the first Part 25 Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) to have a synthetic vision system certified by the FAA. The Gulfstream Synthetic Vision-Primary Flight Display (SV-PFD) displays three-dimensional, color terrain images that are derived from data stored in the Honeywell Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS). At the same time, the FAA also certified Gulfstream's second-generation EVS.

The certifications for both SV-PFD and EVS II are approved for applications on Gulfstream G550, G500, G450 and G350 aircraft.

Both the G550 and the G500 feature twin Rolls-Royce BR710 engines, each of which provide 15,385 pounds of thrust.  The G550 has a range of 6,750 nautical miles, while the G500 can fly up to 5,800 nautical miles nonstop.