Since entering service three years ago this month, Gulfstream Aerospace’s flagship G650 fleet is nearing the 150 aircraft milestone. Some 145 of the ultra-long-range business jets—105 G650s and 40 G650ERs—are currently flying, according to the Savannah, Ga.-based aircraft manufacturer.
To date, the G650 fleet has logged more than 78,000 hours and 29,000 cycles, a company spokeswoman told AIN. Overall, the twinjet’s NBAA dispatch reliability rate is 99.7 percent, she added.
The G650 and G650ER are the longest-legged purpose-built business jets currently on the market at 7,000 nm and 7,500 nm, respectively, and they are likely to remain unchallenged until Bombardier fields its 7,400-nm Global 7000 and 7,900-nm Global 8000 later this decade. “It’s amazing that the G650 has had the market to itself for this long,” JetNet iQ managing director Rolland Vincent told AIN. “And with the recently announced delays in the Global programs, it will do so for at least another three years.”
The G650 received the 2014 Robert J. Collier Trophy and has accumulated nearly 60 speed records. The latter includes a G650 that set a westbound around-the-world speed record of 41 hours and 7 minutes, during which the airplane traveled 8,010 miles nonstop and circumnavigated the globe in one stop.
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