feature of the turboprop aircraft. Passengers
entered through a drop-down airstair door just
aft of the cockpit and there was a galley and
coat cupboard at the front of the cabin and a
fully enclosed restroom at the back. Typically,
the GII would have ten seats consisting of
a front four-seat ‘club’ section, another four
seats arranged around a dining table and a
further two seats or a sideways-facing divan
in the rear. In some cases, a larger divan
raised the capacity to 12 passengers. It was
powered by two 11,400lb/st Rolls-Royce
RB163-25 Spey 511-8 engines mounted
on the upper rear fuselage that enabled it
to climb to its cruising altitude of 41,000ft
(12,496m) in just 15 minutes.The prototype G-1159 GII (N801GA, c/n
001) made its maiden ight at Bethpage,
New York, on October 2, 1966 and was
awarded its Type Certi cate (A12EA) on
October 19, 1967. By this time, customers
were queueing up and orders came in from
some of the top American ‘Fortune 500’
companies. National Distillers was the rst
to receive its GII and other early deliveries
were made to Coca Cola, Ford Motor
Company and Hilton Hotels.
The GII was also popular with wealthy
private individuals such as banker Paul
Mellon, the Aga Khan, Frank Sinatra and
socialite Cordelia Scaife May. In standard
form, the GII had a range of 2,640nm
(4,889km) but it could be upgraded with
wingtip fuel tanks to add a further 348nm
(644km). This meant the GII could
comfortably y from New York to Los
Angeles or London and, given the right
conditions, could reach Rome from New
York. Many GIIs had new, more pointed
radomes, upgraded avionics and some were
retro tted with winglets.
In 1967 Grumman moved GII production
from the Bethpage factory to a new purpose-
built plant at Savannah, Georgia, and the
rst aircraft to be completed there (c/n 41)
was rolled out that December – since when
all large-cabin Gulfstreams have been
built in Savannah in an ever-expanding
manufacturing complex. In 1978 Grumman
sold its commercial aircraft business toAmerican Jet industries, which was renamed
Gulfstream American and later Gulfstream
Aerospace Corporation. The company was
acquired by General Dynamics in May 1999.
With the GII well established as the
prestige business aircraft leader, Gulfstream
initiated a major redesign with the GIII. This
had a modi ed wing with winglets, a new
and more elegant nose and cockpit pro le
and a 39in (0.99m) fuselage stretch, which
added an extra window on each side. The
prototype GIII ew on December 2, 1979
and the Type Certi cate was awarded the
following September. The GIII offered better
general performance than the GII and the
larger cabin was welcomed by operators,
with many existing GII users such as
National Distillers and Procter & Gamble
moving up to the new variant. The GIII also
featured new Sperry avionics and optional
weather radar, but the original engines
were retained and this would start to pose
problems in later years when increasingly
stringent noise restrictions affected the noisy
and smokey Speys.
Owners of GIIs and GIIIs were forced
to install hush kits or upgrade to FAR Part
91 Stage 3-compliant engines before a
deadline of December 31, 2015 and as a
consequence, a number of these aircraft
were forced into retirement. Gulfstream II
owners were also offered the opportunity
to enhance performance by tting their
aircraft with the GIII wing, and 43 werehttp://www.aviation-news.co.uk 59The GIII was a signi cant upgrade from the GII and included
a repro led nose section and winglets. Key CollectionTip tanks were offered by the
manufacturer to extend the range
of the GII. This variant was known
as the GIIER and four were delivered
between 1975 and 1979 to the Saudi
Royal Flight. Key Collection58-63_gulfstreamDC.mfDC.mfDC.indd 59 04/08/2017 14:15