Gulfstream has unveiled its long-rumored G300 super midsized business jet at an invitation-only event in Savannah on Tuesday. The clean-sheet 10-seat state-of-the art replacement for the G280 will round out the company’s lineup, which now includes the 400 to 800 models but with a down-home twist. The communications package on the plane suggests it will be at home on more remote runways, which would be a direct challenge to Pilatus’s PC-24. The opening photo (above) shows the $29 million aircraft lifting off from a strip with mountains and a cabin in the background, suggesting backcountry capability and alluded to as “greater access to challenging airports, from urban hubs to mountain destinations.” Sea-level takeoff distance at maximum takeoff weight is 4,780 feet.
Beyond its rural roots, the aircraft is said by Gulfstream to be packed with the latest in sophisticated gear. The flight deck will have the Harmony avionics suite, the now-standard panoramic oval windows and lots of cupholders in the cabin, which has two living areas. It has a range of 3600 nm (four passengers and IFR reserves) and a maximum speed of 0.85 Mach with a long-range cruise speed of 0.80. It will cruise at a maximum 45,000 feet with a cabin altitude of 4,800 feet at 41,000 feet. The first test aircraft is being tested and two more test articles are being built. The first aircraft is expected to fly soon. The company did not say when first deliveries are planned.
From a former backcountry professional and retired (real) Gulfstream pilot: backcountry is backcountry and corporate jet ops are corporate jet ops, at least in the Fortune 500 and upwards flight ops world. The twain do not meet and never will. The G300 is not a backcountry airplane nor is it a real Gulfstream.
Even the PC24 falls short of really being able to utilize back country unimproved strips. The mix is difficult, mostly due to speeds and weight. Even so, the G300’s claimed ability to operate on short runways is impressive and matches the 4,700 feet of the similarly heavy, Falcon 50.
John, I curious why you make a point of the “real” Gulfstream and you say that the 300 is not a real Gulfstream, whats the back story?
The G300 lineage is as a follow on to the G280 built by Israeli Aerospace Industries for Gulfstream in a business deal, which is a follow on to the G200. True Gulfstream lineage on the other hand is the GI, GII, GIII, GIV, GV, G550, G650, G750 and G800 with some variants in between which never included IAI’s G100, G150, G200, G280 and now G300. To the astute Gulfstream observer there are unique characteristics which bespeak Gulfstream pedigree that carried on from the original GI recognizably through the G550 and for some people even recognizable through today’s latest Gulfstream aircraft which were never present in the aircraft produced by the IAI/Gulfstream business relationship.
Not to diss IAI, but IAI is not Gulfstream even though the two companies formed a business relationship in which IAI built some aircraft for Gulfstream but which never were born of the original Gulfstream lineage. For drivers of the original Gulfstream lineage, the IAI built aircraft are Gulfstreams with an asterisk.
A “backcountry corporate jet.” Whoda thunk?
That just doesn’t sound right. Who’s the target market? The rich guy flying out to Montana? Does anyone really think this aircraft is going to land anywhere that doesn’t have JetA?
Sea level take of is 4780′. OK, what is it in the mountains where they say the target market lives? This entire thing is just ridiculous.
“Mountain destinations” probably refers to Aspen, Telluride, Lake Tahoe, etc. In other words, all the places an existing G280 can already go.
I predict that the G300 will never intentionally be operated off anything but a 4000’+ paved runway.
(Unless perhaps a narcotraficante gets his hands on one. Then all bets are off.)