Gulfstream G250 Makes First Flight in Israel

Last week, Gulfstream announced the first flight of its large-cabin, mid-range G250 business jet. Classed as a super mid-size, the G250 was designed in collaboration with Israel Aerospace Industries and the first flight departed from Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel. It follows the first flight of Gulfstream's ultra-long-range, large-cabin G650 just days earlier in Savannah, Georgia. The G250 flight lasted three hours, 20 minutes, and included checks of handling qualities and some initial systems checks. Presse Henne, Gulfstream's vice president of programs, engineering and test said, "The G250 performed extremely well, just as we expected. We're looking forward to 2011 when we'll begin delivering this aircraft to the customers who had tremendous input in its design." The test flight reached 32,000 feet and achieved speeds up to 253 knots. Powered by a pair of Honeywell HTF7250G turbofans, the G250's design maximum speed is Mach .85 with a range of 3,400 nautical miles at Mach .80 — linking city pairs such as New York-London and London-Dubai. Maximum cruising altitude is 45,000 feet. The G250 cockpit features Gulfstream's PlaneView 250 suite, based on the Rockwell Collins Pro Line Fusion platform.