The Supersonic Business Jet is looming larger on Gulfstream's radar scope now that deliveries of the ultra long range G-V are well under way and General Dynamics' purchase of the company has cleared doubts over its future ownership.

And so is the new see-in-the-dark Enhanced Vision System (EVS) that will enable a pilot to see airports and their surroundings at night and in bad weather, and runway lights much sooner during a low-visibility approach than ever before.

While the first EVS will be delivered in the first half of next year, the Supersonic Business Jet is a number of years away, Gulfstream president and COO Bill Boisture told Show News. He points to both as excellent examples of Gulfstream asserting its leadership as a high technology company, one that applies the latest scientific developments to sound operational applications.

EVS see clearly through the murk as shown in this comparative photo.

"Following that, we introduced the heads up display (HUD) on a business aircraft, and now in combination with that, the EVS. That combination is probably the most significant advance in low visibility near-to-ground operations in 30 to 35 years."

Now that the question of ownership has been resolved (Ted Forstmann and his investment banking group sold Gulfstream to General Dynamics in June in a stock deal valued at $4.8 billion), management can lead the company with fewer distractions.

"In the last three to four months we have brought the company into balance," Boisture said. Completions of new aircraft are now running at a faster rate than "green" aircraft roll off the line, and customer waiting times are being reduced.

"We're turning out a better product in quality, and producing more of them," he said. "A lot of the challenges of this time last year have been met."

Boisture gave much of the credit to Forstmann's aggressive leadership of Gulfstream for the nine years he owned it until its sale. "You couldn't have found a better steward for this company," he said. Forstmann, he noted, invested heavily in the future development of Gulfstream.

Under Forstmann's guidance production of aircraft more than doubled in just two years from 27 in 1996 to 65 this year, with capital investments of some $35 million in 1998 alone. Last year, Gulfstream bought K-C Aviation, the industry's leading independent provider of aircraft completions and service, for $250 million, and opened a new, $8.5 million paint facility in Long Beach, CA.
Another $30 million has been earmarked for investment this year in capital equipment and business systems, and $15 million a year for the next several years for R&D to continuously improve the reliability and cost of operations for the GIV-SP and GV.

On the business side Gulfstream last year expanded its Gulfstream Shares fractional ownership program to the Middle East (with the first aircraft just entering service there); introduced Gulfstream Lease, the industry's first short-term operating lease program in conjunction with GATX Capital; and it introduced Gulfstream Charter Service to monitor availability and standards of Gulfstream aircraft offered for charter.

The acquisition of K-C Aviation's service centers in Appleton, WI, Dallas, TX and Westfield, MA, helped boost its service revenues 40% to $281.8 million in 1998 and will figure large in plans to compete for maintenance contracts for mixed as well as Gulfstream-only fleets.

With all this in place, Boisture and his team are focusing on "exceeding customer expectations for in-service reliability." Noting the G-IV is already scoring a better-than-airline standard of 99.7% dispatch reliability, he explained Gulfstream intends to jump its own bar and make the G-V even better. It is currently running about 99.6%, itself a remarkable achievement so soon after entering service in June 1997. One aircraft has now amassed over 2,000 hours, the fleet (61 are now in service out of 150 ordered) has racked up some 26,000 hours of flight time, and recorded 13,000 landings.

Into-service snags such as hydraulic pump and starter failures lowered the scorecard, but Gulfstream has empowered executive-level teams to address and fix every problem that arises. Boisture expects that many system improvements will later be flowed back again to the GIV, further improving reliability all round.

And the Supersonic Business Jet? "We continue to study it and we're encouraged by the progress being made," Boisture said. Dassault's claim to have dropped development of its rival project because it believed no suitable engines could be found has not slowed Gulfstream and its partner, Lockheed Martin Skunk Works.

"We are listening closely to our customers on this," Boisture said. "We're not designing it because we decided we can, but because customers continue to tell us that worldwide access on a timely basis is what makes their businesses work. The ability to shrink the world will be of value, and they will pay for it."