Story ID: 1090412alerts
Gulfstream G280 Earns Its Wings
By: Chad Trautvetter
Caption: 
Word Count: 244
The super-midsize Gulfstream G280, a joint project between Gulfstream and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), obtained full FAA and Israeli type certification today. This was an on-time arrival for Gulfstream, which had promised such approval in the third quarter. The aircraft received provisional type certification from Israel’s CAAI on December 29 and from the FAA on March 1.

“Gulfstream is excited to bring this aircraft to its customers, especially since we’re able to provide an airplane that does more than we originally announced,” said Gulfstream president Larry Flynn. The G280 has a range of 3,600 nm at Mach 0.80, a 200-nm increase over original projections. “It’s the only midsize aircraft that can reliably fly nonstop between London and New York,” he added.

The approvals clear the way for customer deliveries of the new twinjet. Gulfstream says it will deliver the first G280 before year-end to a “U.S.-based manufacturer with a worldwide presence spanning 190 countries.”

According to Gulfstream, the principal remaining item required before the FAA and CAAI issued full type certificates was an update to the software for the twinjet’s Rockwell Collins Pro Line Fusion avionics. This hurdle was cleared today, when Rockwell Collins announced that the avionics system achieved FAA certification on the Gulfstream PlaneView280 flight deck.

Meanwhile, full FAA certification of the wide-cabin Gulfstream G650 is expected by the end of this month. The G650 received provisional FAA certification in November.