Friday, August 17, 2012

Gulfstream G280 and G650 fly towards final FAA certification

Gulfstream Aerospace’s two newest aircraft–the super-midsize G280 and wide-cabin G650–are both on final approach to receive their respective FAA certification, the company announced yesterday.

FAA pilots have finished all the scheduled flying required for the G650 certification program, and the EASA test team has completed the flight testing required for its validation of FAA type certification. The G650 received FAA provisional certification in November and is in the process of completing final certification tests with the FAA to allow entry-into-service later this year.

These include field performance tests, evaluating the aircraft’s performance in natural icing conditions and conducting function and reliability testing. As of July 31, the test fleet had logged more than 3,800 hours on more than 1,160 sorties. Meanwhile, the G280 is rapidly closing in on its entry into service.

All certification flying has been completed for the new super-midsize jet, which received provisional type certificates from the FAA in March and the Civil Aviation Authority of Israel in December. Gulfstream characterizes the remaining process for approval as just a paperwork exercise.

As of July 31, the three flight-test G280s had logged more than 2,000 hours on more than 740 flights. The fatigue test article has completed more than 17,000 of 40,000 cycles planned.

(Aviation International News)

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