photo: Gulfstream Aerospace
Zoom! Gulfstream announced Tuesday that its new G650 flagship zipped across the 1,900 nautical miles from Burbank to Savannah in 3 hours 26 minutes on January 12, 2011. Passing through 10,000 ft, it accelerated to more than 300 KIAS, then transitioned to a .85 Mach climb directly to FL 430. It accelerated to .91 Mach, equivalent to 522 KTAS, assuming standard day conditions. Helped by an average 20 to 30 knot tailwind, the aircraft logged a block to block ground speed of more than 550 knots for the entire trip. At cruise altitude, a strong winter jetstream enabled to it cover more than eleven miles per minute during much of the trip.
Remember the "Lisa Marie"? That's was Elvis Presley's private Convair 880 in the mid 1970s. The early 1960s' jetliner could fly at virtually the same speeds as G650, but its 12,000 pph fuel guzzling proved to be its final undoing. And so clearly we recall the ear-splitting blast of its four GE J-79 turbojets on takeoff as well as its coal-black exhaust trail that could be seen for five miles.
How times have changed. G650 already has proven it can fly 5,000 nm at .90 Mach. That's a feat the old Convair never could attempt. G650 also burns less than a fourth of the fuel at that speed, cruising a mile higher, emitting a fraction of the carbon emissions and not a trace of soot. Hurray for technology!
Now, all G650 has to is prove that it can cruise 7,000 nm at .85 Mach so that it can claim title as World's fastest, longest range business jet.
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