Gulfstream Aerospace is developing a derivative midsize business jet based on the former Astra SPX and–in a Herculean effort to transform its product line in the minds of customers, suppliers and company personnel alike–is revising the nomenclature, options and mission profiles of its current business jet offerings, the company revealed at the Marriott World Center Hotel on Sunday night and further elaborated at an NBAA Convention press conference yesterday.
Capitalizing on its 2001 acquisition of the type certificates for the former IAI/Galaxy Aerospace Astra SPX and Galaxy jets–which Gulfstream renamed the G100 and G200, respectively–the Savannah, Ga. airframer is working on the G150, a G100 derivative with a wider fuselage and more aerodynamic nose (see box on page 125). Meanwhile, it is dropping the Roman-numeral suffixes from its familiar homegrown business jets, giving them also “G-hundred” designations. The in-production GIV-SP, for example, will morph into two models, the G300 and G400, after the 500th GIV is built, while the in-development GV-SP will become the G550 and to a lesser degree the G500, after the 200th GV comes off the assembly line in Savannah. Gulfstream has delivered 184 green GVs to date, of which 160 are in service.
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