It's the Aerospace unit of General Dynamics now, but Gulfstream is still headquartered in Savannah with its premerger management intact, and it rolls cross-state to NBAA's Atlanta gala with an order backlog of approximately $4 billion, including major purchases by the Executive Jets, Inc. NetJets fractional ownership program.

Gulfstream has notched 150 overall orders for its flagship Gulfstream V, of which 61 were to be delivered by the start of NBAA. The company also offers the popular G-IVSP (more than 350 G-IVs and -IVSPs in service).

Both aircraft can fly above commercial traffic and adverse weather (the G-V at an impressive 51,000 feet), allowing for simpler, faster and more comfortable routing.

Gulfstream is stressing technology at NBAA this year, with a special emphasis on EVS, its infrared-based enhanced vision system.

The company is wrapping up in-house EVS flight tests now and will commence FAA testing with a view toward certification "no later than the first quarter of 2000," a Gulfstream spokesman told Show News just prior to NBAA. The company had earlier projected the second quarter for winning its EVS certification, with deliveries soon after.
Gulfstream earlier this year touted EVS as "the most important advancement in aviation safety and airplane capability since the jet engine." EVS will allow Category 3-type impaired visibility landings even at airfields that aren't Category 3-equipped. "It's going to allow you to punch through poor weather and permit visual-type landings," says the Gulfstream spokesman. It will help view terrain at night, too, the company says.

The Gulfstream EVS employs a Kollsman camera with advanced indium antimonide infrared sensing, allowing runway lights to be "seen" through poor weather at the minimum approach altitude of 60 meters. The Gulfstream EVS is expected to cost approximately $500,000 per unit. It's to be available next year, first for the G-V, then the G-IVSP.
Being able to land at airfields with less than state-of-the-art IFR systems in place is one more selling point for an aircraft line that's already indubitably successful. The Collier Trophy-winning G-V entered service at the end of June 1997 and in two years accumulated some 18,000 flight hours. "The Gulfstream V has set a total of 59 world and national records for distance and speed," the company crows.

Recent deals have taken Gulfstream deeper into the support end of the business aircraft business, including last year's deal by which Gulfstream will maintain the EJI-NetJets fleet of Falcon, Hawker and Gulfstream jets for five years. Execution will be eased by this past summer's FAA approval of Gulfstream's Appleton, WI facility as a Designated Alteration Station. Winning this status means that Gulfstream personnel can design modifications and grant FAA Supplemental Type Certificate approvals on-site.

"This FAA authorization will significantly improve the timeliness of completing modification under the FAA STC process, enhancing our capability to manage customer delivery demands," said Gary Hartwig, General Manager of Gulfstream-Appleton. Duncan Aviation veteran Kip Wiltse, who joined Gulfstream in March, will manage DAS activities at Appleton.

Gulfstream's merger with General Dynamics was finalized on July 30, with GD effecting the purchase via a one-for-one stock swap valued at about $4.8 billion. Gulfstream earned $225.3 million on sales of $2.4 billion in 1998.