Development of the Gulfstream G500 large-cabin business jet made another advance on 20 November, with the manufacturer's second and third test aircraft joining the flight test campaign.
Aircraft T2 took off from the airframer’s headquarters in Savannah, Georgia, and during its 3h 3min flight, climbed to an altitude of 43,000ft, reaching a maximum airspeed of 300kt (555km/h), or Mach 0.85.
“The crew exercised all primary flight control systems, performed functional checks of the air data and cabin pressurisation systems and completed a series of engine performance measurements,” says Gulfstream. T2 will concentrate on performance and systems testing, and will also be used for flight loads validation, it adds.
Gulfstream Aerospace
T3 took to the air later the same day, reaching an altitude of 45,000ft during its 2h 25min sortie. This aircraft is the testbed for the G500’s Symmetry flightdeck – powered by Honeywell's Primus Epic system – and will also evaluate the ice-protection system, landing gear, nosewheel steering operation “and other mechanical systems”, says Gulfstream.
The clean-sheet, 5,000nm (9,250km)-range G500 was launched in October 2014, along with its longer-range stablemate the G600, which is scheduled to begin flight testing next year.
Since the first G500 test article took to the skies in May, T1 has notched up around 170h across 47 missions, reaching an altitude of 50,000ft and speeds of up to M0.995, Gulfstream says. The latter represents a certification requirement for the G500, which will share the top-of-the-range G650’s maximum operating speed of M0.925.
US certification and service entry of the Pratt & Whitney Canada-PW814GA-powered G500 are slated for 2017 and 2018, respectively.
Validation and first deliveries of the 6,200nm-range, PW815GA-powered G600 are pegged for 2018 and 2019.
Source: Flight International
