Gulfstream Aerospace Corp claims its new G650 business jet has set an unofficial speed record by reaching Mach 0.995 during its 1800-hour flight-test program.
This makes the G650 the fastest civil aircraft in the world, a lofty title that has long been held by the Cessna Citation X, which can reach a top speed of Mach 0.92.
The test G650 reached this impressive speed mark during flutter testing, which evaluates the aircraft’s damping responses following an input from an external test device.
In order to achieve the maximum speed of Mach 0.995, Gulfstream experimental test pilots Tom Horne and Gary Freeman took the aircraft into a dive, pitching the nose 16 to 18 degrees below the horizon. During the dive, flutter exciters introduced a range of vibration frequencies to the wing, tail and flight control surfaces to ensure the aircraft naturally dampened out the oscillations without further action from the pilots.
“The airplane is very predictable - it’s very easy to control and to get precise control at those speeds,” said Horne. “The airplane response has matched the expectations of our engineers, and we’ve been able to easily fly the test conditions and march through the test plan.”
Powered by two Rolls-Royce BR725 engines, the Gulfstream G650 has a long-range cruise speed of Mach 0.80 and a range of 7000nm at that speed. The G650 flight-test program officially began on November 25 last year and to date the four test aircraft currently flying in the program have completed more than 170 flights and 575 flight-test hours. Customer deliveries are scheduled to start in 2012.