Aircraft
Gulfstream G650 nears first flight
Under a bright blue sky on September 29, Gulfstream Aerospace

Under a bright blue sky on September 29, Gulfstream Aerospace
rolled out the first wide-cabin G650 under the power of its two Rolls-Royce BR725 engines before a crowd of about 7,000 people at the company’s Savannah, Ga. headquarters. The $64.5 million (2009 $) twinjet–dubbed T1, for test aircraft one–is currently undergoing ground tests and is scheduled to fly by year-end. The clean-sheet aircraft was publicly unveiled in March last year and is expected to obtain FAA certification in late 2011, with deliveries to follow in 2012.

Speaking on the day of the rollout, Gulfstream president Joe Lombardo said, “We’ve all been looking forward to this day since we officially announced the G650 program last year.” He added that “the G650 is a statement about Gulfstream,” referring to the company’s willingness to invest in new aircraft programs during troubling economic times.