By Savannah Morning News
Created 2010-09-21 00:19
Aircraft’s first flight in 1985 ‘a milestone and turning point for the company’
Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. on Monday celebrated the 25th anniversary of the first flight of the Gulfstream IV, the best-selling large-cabin, long-range business jet in the world.
“The G-Four was the aircraft that launched a thousand Gulfstream aircraft,” said Gulfstream president Joe Lombardo. “It formed the foundation for designing and building the G300, G400, G350 and G450.
“The aircraft’s first flight was a milestone and turning point for the company.”
Longtime Gulfstream employee Jim Gallagher, an acoustics engineer for the GIV program, said the aircraft revolutionized the industry. More than 520 of the 536 jets produced in the GIV series are still in operation.
“The GIV set a new standard for technology and, as it evolved, it did the same for reliability,” said Gallagher, director of the company’s large and mid-cabin sustaining program.
The GIV’s popularity was based, at least in part, on its unprecedented speed and range, Gallagher said.
“There was no other aircraft that came close,” he said. ” Companies relied on it to travel worldwide; it helped push global commerce.”
The first GIV took off from Savannah International Airport on Sept. 19, 1985 – three months ahead of schedule and just eight days after it was rolled out at the business-jet manufacturer’s Savannah headquarters.
The maiden flight was part of a race against time to prepare the aircraft for the National Business Aviation Association convention in New Orleans, where it was one of the main attractions.
But the GIV was popular with customers well before its first flight. More than 80 orders were taken while the aircraft was in development. At the time, the backlog of nearly $1.3 billion in orders was the largest for a single aircraft in business aviation history.
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