When Fortune magazine held its Global Forum in Shanghai last month, the event drew not only world business leaders but 18 Gulfstreams, including five Gulfstream Vs. That is the kind of indicator that reinforces the belief of Gulfstream president Bill Boisture that the big-business-jet market is solid.
"Our customers realize that airlines no longer perform the task that they need to perform," he said here Monday.

Gulfstream is working hard to reduce the time that its customers spend waiting for their new airplanes, said Boisture. For the first time, Gulfstream is completing airplanes faster than they are being produced, cutting into the order backlog and reducing the lead time from order to delivery: in 1999, Gulfstream will complete 70 airplanes. Last year's acquisition of K-C Aviation has helped add capacity, while the company's Long Beach center, which completes Gulfstream Vs, delivered its 18th airplane of 1999 in September. Previously, Long Beach had never delivered more than 17 aircraft in a year.

In another effort to speed the flow of completed aircraft, Gulfstream said at this past June's Paris Air Show that it would offer a premium interior option for the GV and GIV-SP, comprising a comprehensive avionics fit and a cabin furnished from a full menu of choices, based on the features selected by a majority of Gulfstream customers. Since then, said Boisture, 70% of the aircraft sold have included this option.

Gulfstream claims to have won almost two-thirds of the market in the GV size class to date. On Monday, the National Aeronautic Association officially recognized two point-to-point records for the Gulfstream V: a U.S. national record of 13 hours 37 minutes on a Johannesburg to Manila flight, and a world record of 12 hours 26 minutes from Tokyo to Paris.