On the Record with
BILL BOISTURE, PRESIDENT, GULFSTREAM AEROSPACE

From top to bottom, Gulfstream has rearranged and augmented its family of aircraft and services in a manner that will set the tone for the company for the remainder of the decade.

Bill Boisture, President, Gulfstream Aerospace

"We've changed the product line to bring a broad line of airplanes and packages to market at different value points," says Gulfstream Aerospace president Bill Boisture. "One of the functions of offering new products to the market is introducing some new nomenclature."

That nomenclature says goodbye to the usual way Gulfstream names its aircraft -- GII, GIII, GIV and GV -- and adds the G150, G300, G400, G500 and G550 to the G100 (Astra SPX) and G200 (Galaxy) already in the Gulfstream family.

According to Boisture, the new lineup of aircraft will move the company "into the future with a broad product line that offers newly defined performance, price and value points."

For Boisture, the most important development in the new family of aircraft falls in the middle of the product line--specifically the G300, which has been introduced to compete against the Falcon 2000EX and Challenger 604.

"This is a new segment in which we intend to compete," Boisture told Show News. "That is the big news of this airplane; it put a high-performance airplane from Gulfstream in this market segment to compete with those two products.

"At serial number 1,500 on the GIV line, that line will change to producing Gulfstream 400s and 300s, and GIVs will go out of production. We have the $20 million G200 and $32 million GIV-SP, and now we've gone in between with the G300.

"Projections from Honeywell and Teal indicate that this segment of the market--from $20 million to $30 million--is both a large segment and one that is expected to grow."

Gulfstream is also going in a new direction with the G400 -- which is similar to the G300 except for having a longer range -- but, at $32.2 million, includes a full package of training, parts and maintenance for the first five years of ownership.

"What you're seeing from Gulfstream is not only the offer of a high-performance airplane fully equipped, but the inclusion of things that let us say to the customer that when you buy a G400 you've bought an airplane in which the cost of ownership of the plane in the first five years is predictable.
"This is the first time an all-inclusive package like this has been offered. We think that is a very strong offer."

While the new "G" line of aircraft will dominate Gulfstream's attention at NBAA, there have been other developments over the past several months worth mentioning.

Regarding the airplane commonly known as the GIV Next, Boisture says it is still in development. "Rolls-Royce and others have made commitments to participate with us. We're working on it but not ready to talk about it."

And in the area of possible continued development of a supersonic business jet, Boisture offered guarded enthusiasm. "We continue to work on technology studies with grants from DARPA. We're making progress on technology building blocks on that concept, but it's a modest effort at best."

By Barry Rosenberg