ightglobal.com 10-16 November 2015 | Flight International | 37
BUSINESS AVIATION
G500 TECHNICAL DESCRIPTIONGULFSTREAM G50005 m
0 15ftTim Bicheno-Brown/Flightglobalning into difficulties – but Gulfstream says the
decision to build the structures next to its
final assembly line in Savannah is to “give us
more flexibility in the build cycle”. Burns
adds: “We looked at industry capacity and we
had a competition, but we decided to meet
the capacity needed in house. We will do the
same exercise in future for all our products.”
Production of the first G500 is under way in
a new final assembly line facility, one of two
recently constructed buildings on the Savan-
nah campus (the other makes the wings for
the two aircraft). Two older buildings closer to
Savannah airport’s terminal house the final
assembly lines for the G550/450 and the
G650/G650ER. When we visited in October,
there were three G500s in assembly in addi-
tion to the three already with the flight test
department. Manufacture of the first G600
flight test example – the programme is rough-
ly 18 months behind the G500 – is underway
and the type, says Gulfstream, is on track for
its first flight in 2017.
There are four main areas in the final assem-
bly line. Fuselage panels arrive from suppliers
and are pieced together using a Broetje ma-
chine. On the next station the sections are
joined to make the recognisable fuselage barrel,
before wings, tail, engines and landing gear are
fitted. On a final station, the likes of farings and
windows are installed before the aircraft is set
for power-on and ground testing. The process
is much more automated than is traditional on
a Gulfstream product thanks to processes such
as chemically bonded stringers – introduced
for the G650. “On a G650 there are 80% fewer
fasteners than on a G450 or G550,” says Gulf-
stream. “This evolves it further.”FIRST TESTS
The first flight of the G500 took place on 19
May, with N500GA staying in the air for 2h
15min and reaching an altitude of 15,000ft.
After a pause of “several weeks” to prepare
the aircraft for flutter tests, flight testing re-
sumed in August. By mid-October, the jet had
surpassed more than 100h of flight on “more
than 45 missions”, the longest of which was
5h 22min. The aircraft has reached an alti-
tude of 38,500ft and maximum airspeed of
M0.8. “This plane has been flying exactly as
expected, which highlights our commitment
to quality and our attention to detail,” says
Dan Nale, senior vice-president, programs,
engineering and test.
Of the four test aircraft, the first, T1, is fo-
cused on flight performance and controls,
with the second, T2, on flight loads valida-
tion. T3 is used mostly to test avionics, and T4
human factors and supporting systems. The
programme also includes an aircraft with a
fully outfitted interior. Gulfstream said on 14
October that it had completed initial testing of
the aircraft’s handling qualities as well as its
high-speed and attitude recovery stall system.
Flutter and envelope expansion testing was
continuing on T1, while T2 and T3 were
being prepared for flight. The G500 has also
completed static-limit load-testing on its pri-
mary structural components.
Gulfstream has invested heavily both in re-
search and development laboratories but also
in ground testing facilities, and places great
store on the fact that its extensive pre-flight de-velopment process has allowed flight testing to
pass smoothly. Some 37,000h of testing have
been carried out on its so-called system inte-
gration bench, integration test facility (ITF) and
separate iron birds for the G500 and G600, a
process that will continue until the turn of the
decade. “We’ve had no maintenance
squawks,” says Kohler. “We are convinced that
the investment in the labs has allowed us to do
this. We have been able to mature hardware
and software in a controlled environment.”
Gulfstream introduced its ITF for the GV
programme to integrate Honeywell devices in
overhead panels. “We’ve taken that a step fur-
ther to create a fully visual system,” says
Kohler. “It’s more wraparound. It gives pilots
all the visual cues they need.” The system inte-
gration bench has been running for five years
and is “very centric to evaluating Honeywell ❯❯Two iron birds are now in operationGulfstreamGulfstream