Gulfstream Gives NBAA Show a Miss As It Presses Ahead on New Programs

Though Gulfstream will not attend this year's NBAA to tout the latest acquisitions to its aircraft lineup, the Gulfstream 100 (Astra SPX) and Gulfstream 200 (Galaxy), company representatives will certainly be talking about the recent certification of its long-in-development Enhanced Vision System (EVS) for the GV.

The FAA-issued STC lets Gulfstream offer EVS as an option on new production GVs and as a retrofit on in-service GV aircraft.

The enhanced vision technology is also being integrated into the under-development GV-SP as a standard component in the PlaneView cockpit, which adds forward-looking infrared technology from Kollsman, a head-up display from Honeywell and a Gulfstream-designed cursor control to an advanced Honeywell Primus Epic suite of flat panel displays.

In other news, Gulfstream was selected in mid-November to supply two GV special mission aircraft to the Japan Coast Guard. The $100 million contract includes dedicated engineering support for modification and integration of the mission systems.

Gulfstream also continues to benefit from the explosive growth in fractional ownership. This past summer Gulfstream won a firm order from UAL Corp.'s Avolar subsidiary for 12 business jets with options for 23 more. The firm orders are for seven Gulfstream IV-SPs and five Gulfstream Vs; the options are for nine GIV-SPs and 14 GV-SPs.

By Barry Rosenberg