Gulfstream G550: specifications, range, cabin

The Gulfstream G550 is an ultra-long-range business jet with 12 501 km of range and a cabin of three or four zones. Here are the book figures and how they behave in service: what the aircraft carries on its limiting leg, what runways it needs, and how it differs from its neighbours in the class.

Principal specifications

Manufacturer's data. The figures for a particular aircraft come from its flight manual: specification and modifications change the weights, and with them the range.

Full specifications and sourcing are on the model page.

Range: what sits behind 6 750 miles

Book range is calculated with eight passengers, four crew, cruise at M 0.80 and NBAA reserves. Those are the conditions of the calculation.

What reduces the figure:

Speed. The difference between M 0.80 and M 0.85 on a long leg costs about 500–700 km of range. The crew chooses between the two on every flight.

Payload. Every passenger above the notional eight takes fuel with them. A cabin of 16 with baggage costs several hundred kilometres.

Wind. A headwind on east–west routes eats 5 to 15 per cent depending on season and flight level.

The departure aerodrome. A short runway, heat or elevation limits the take-off weight, and with it the fuel on board.

A working rule: a leg longer than 85 per cent of book range is planned with a technical stop or with a reduced load. For the G550 that is about 10 600 km without qualifications.

What the aircraft covers without a stop at a sensible load: Moscow–New York, Moscow–Hong Kong, London–Los Angeles, Dubai–New York, and New York–Tokyo at the margin.

The cabin: length against width

The 13.11 m cabin divides into three or four zones depending on the layout. Width is 2.24 m and height 1.88 m.

The forward zone. A club four around two tables, a working position.

The middle zone. A dining group, or a divan along the side with seats opposite.

The aft zone. A divan converting to a full-length berth, a separate door, a lavatory.

The galley. Full-size, in the forward part, sized for hot meals on a twelve-hour leg.

Fourteen windows a side are a Gulfstream signature and a noticeable difference in light against Bombardier and Dassault aircraft of the same class.

A width of 2.24 m is 25 centimetres less than the Global 6000. In the club four that shows in the distance between the seat and the aisle. Cabin length on the two types is almost identical.

The baggage compartment is accessible in flight, with a volume of about 6.4 cubic metres.

Engines and fuel burn

Two Rolls-Royce BR710C4-11 of 15 385 lb thrust. The BR710 family is also on the Global 6000, the fleet is large, the service network established and the life statistics accumulated over twenty years.

Hourly burn in cruise is of the order of 1.8–2.0 tonnes an hour depending on level and weight. On a ten-hour leg that is about 19 tonnes of fuel.

The aircraft are supported on Rolls-Royce CorporateCare hourly-payment programmes. Programme status is the first item in checking the documents at purchase: it affects the price and the first-year budget alike.

Aerodromes

Runway required at maximum take-off weight is about 1 800 m. Landing distance at a typical landing weight is of the order of 840 m.

The G550 needs slightly less runway than the Global 6000 while offering more range. In practice that adds several fields in the mountains and on islands to the network.

With full fuel for a limiting leg a proper international aerodrome is still needed. Short fields accept the aircraft with reduced fuel, meaning a leg within three or four hours.

Ceiling, flight deck and EVS

51 000 ft. The upper levels, where the main traffic does not climb and most weather fronts stay below. Cabin pressure in cruise corresponds to an altitude of about 1 800 metres.

The PlaneView flight deck has four large displays. The enhanced vision system, EVS, with an infrared camera projects the image onto a head-up display. On an approach in fog and at night this gives the crew an authorised reduction in minima and genuinely saves flights from diverting. On the G550 EVS is standard — a rare thing for aircraft of the 2000s.

The G550 programme was awarded the Collier Trophy in 2003.

G550, G500 and G450: what gets confused in listings

Gulfstream V — the predecessor, range about 12 000 km, a previous-generation flight deck without PlaneView.

G500 (GV-SP) — a lower-cost version of the G550 with reduced fuel capacity, range about 5 800 nautical miles, with EVS and some equipment at extra cost. This G500 has nothing to do with the new-generation GVII-G500 built from 2018. The coincidence of names confuses buyers regularly.

G450 — a smaller airframe of the GIV-X family, range about 8 000 km, a different class in money and in capability.

G550 — the aircraft of this analysis: 6 750 nautical miles, PlaneView, EVS as standard.

The type is verified from the logbook. A Gulfstream V presented as a G550 is an ordinary story on the pre-owned market.

What to look at on the particular aircraft

Airframe time in hours and cycles separately. Time on each engine and what remains to the next removal. CorporateCare status on the engines and the APU programme. Calendar checks completed and the next one due. The state of the avionics and its compliance with the requirements of the airspace the aircraft will fly in. The year of the last cabin refurbishment. Operating history: government and corporate aircraft run different patterns of use.

Every item converts into money — either a discount off the price or a line in the first-year budget.

What the aircraft itself and its upkeep cost is covered in the analysis of Gulfstream G550 prices. Its direct competitor on money is covered in the article on the Bombardier Global 6000.