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G550 Wins the 2003 Collier Trophy as NAA Cites Jet's Advances
in Safety
Gulfstream Aerospace may be emphasizing its special missions capabilities
here at Farnborough 2004, but the Savannah firm has a G550 on display
too—after all, the new long-range jet is the most recent winner
of the coveted Collier Trophy, awarded in May by the National
Aeronautic Association in Washington, D.C.
An NAA committee of experts determined the G550 to be 2003's "greatest
achievement in aeronautics in the United States with respect to
improving the performance, efficiency or safety of air or space
vehicles."
Celebrating too is avionics supplier Honeywell, which is boasting
the G550 Collier Trophy at its chalet here.
Honeywell's Primus Epic technology is the brains and backbone of
the G550's PlaneView cockpit, as Honeywell provides both processing
and display hardware. Primus Epic avionics have now been certified
on four aircraft, the G550 having been the first—and one of
the only aircraft—on which the Kollsman EVS enhanced vision
system is standard (the other is Gulfstream's G450).
As NAA puts it, "EVS allows pilots to see the runway and the
surrounding area in conditions of limited visibility, such as at
night or in fog. The system uses a forward-looking infrared camera
(from Kollsman) that projects a real-world image on the cockpit's
head-up display to give pilots unparalleled situational awareness."
Also cited is the aircraft's overall PlaneView cockpit, "replacing
the normal system of dials and gauges with a streamlined large-format
display with graphic interfaces." Gulfstream calls the PlaneView
cockpit "simply the most advanced flight deck in existence
-- the crowning achievement of Gulfstream's digital flight deck
experience."
And, says NAA, the G550 has "established itself as the aircraft
that can fly the farthest in its class." On December 6, the
G550 broke a record for Distance Without Landing, flying from Savannah,
Georgia, to Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, a distance of 7,546
miles, at an average speed of 549 mph. The jet also flew around
the world twice in 2003, once in four legs, another time in three
legs.
Key members of the Gulfstream G550 team besides Honeywell and Kollsman
include Rolls-Royce, Stork/Fokker and Vought.
The $45.75 million G550 on display here will be available for customer
demos after the show. It is one of three based in Europe. Steve
Jones is Gulfstream's UK sales director.
The company has a product support service center at London-Luton
Airport, its first outside the U.S., acquired last year from BBA
Aviation Services. It's now being doubled in size to better support
European and Mideast customers.
—Rich Piellisch
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The Gulfstream V Won Too
Last year's wasn't the first Collier Trophy for Gulfstream,
as the firm's Gulfstream V won the award in 1997, for what
the National Aeronautic Association called "the world's
first ultra-long range business jet."
Other past winners of the Collier Trophy include Chuck Yeager
for breaking the sound barrier in 1947, the Apollo 8 and Apollo
11 moon missions in 1968 and 1969, and the Boeing 747 and
777 (in 1970 and 1995, respectively).
More recent winners include the the Joint Strike Fighter
in 2001and the Sikorsky S-92 helicopter in 2002. The Collier
Trophy was first awarded in 1911 to Glenn H Curtiss for "successful
development of the hydro-aeroplane" (seaplane).
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