G 650

Gulfstream Aerospace, now a wholly owned subsidiary of General Dynamics (NYSE: GD) and once upon a time a part of Grumman, today revealed its new flagship business jet, the all-new Gulfstream G650, at company headquarters in Savannah. The aircraft rolled out under its own power. First announced in March 2008, the ultra-large-cabin, ultra-long-range G650 remains on schedule for customer deliveries in 2012. Approximately 7,000 people gathered at the new G650 manufacturing building for the aircraft’s debut. The audience included state and local dignitaries, customers, certifying authorities, supplier representatives, members of the G650 development team and many other employees at the Savannah facility.
The aircraft raises the bar in every area including price and it is a great achivement that is has been developed on schedule and without developmen glitches

“We’ve all been looking forward to this day since we officially announced the G650 program last year,” said Joe Lombardo, executive vice president, General Dynamics Aerospace group. “Simply put, the Gulfstream G650 is in a class by itself. I want to thank everyone who made this aircraft possible. I share the tremendous amount of pride you have for this significant piece of aviation history. Like you, I am eagerly awaiting the first flight later this year.”

The G650 offers the longest range, fastest speed, largest cabin and the most advanced cockpit in the Gulfstream fleet. It features an all-new fuselage cross section, allowing a wider and taller cabin than the previous top-of-the-line G550 model. The G650 is capable of traveling 7,000 nautical miles at 0.85 Mach and has a maximum operating speed of 0.925, which will make it the fastest civil aircraft flying. It can climb to an altitude of 51,000 feet, which allows it to avoid traffic and inclement weather.

“Our customers had an instrumental role in the design of the G650,” said Pres Henne, senior vice president, Programs, Engineering and Test, Gulfstream. “The G650 will set new levels of performance in aircraft capability, cabin environment and maintainability. Customer input was used to guide fuselage size selection as well as aircraft performance characteristics. The G650 offers unprecedented speed and range, superb takeoff performance, an all-new Gulfstream wing, best-in-class Rolls-Royce BR725 engines, and top-of-the-line aesthetics. It provides the most technologically advanced flight deck in business aviation with the PlaneViewTM II cockpit and an advanced aircraft health and trend monitoring system to support aircraft maintenance planning and improve availability.

“Along with traditional measures of aircraft performance, significant effort has been spent in ensuring the cabin will be in a class by itself. The Gulfstream Cabin EssentialTM systems include redundant fiber optic and wireless technologies, along with the latest innovations in lighting, seating, acoustics and cabin systems to provide the most productive cabin environment in business aviation. Three-dimensional electronic design tools were used to design the entire aircraft, facilitating remarkable part precision, allowing ease of assembly and proper placement of components for ease of maintenance and shorter downtimes. The up-front, detailed engineering effort and its end result are a real tribute to the engineering and manufacturing teams.”

The G650 features a cabin that measures 102 inches wide and 77 inches high, the largest purpose-built cabin in business aviation. The extra space allows for larger galleys and lavatories, and increased storage. The aircraft, which seats 11-18 passengers, also features 16 panoramic windows that measure 28 by 20.5 inches, the largest in the industry; improved sound levels; a vacuum toilet system; and in-flight access to 195 cubic feet of usable volume in the baggage compartment.

Gulfstream announced the G650 on March 13, 2008, in Savannah. The aircraft is on schedule for first flight later this year and is expected to be certified in 2011. Entry-into-service is planned for 2012.
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Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of General Dynamics (NYSE: GD), designs, develops, manufactures, markets, services and supports the world’s most technologically advanced business-jet aircraft. Gulfstream has produced some 1,800 aircraft for customers around the world since 1958. To meet the diverse transportation needs of the future, Gulfstream offers a comprehensive fleet of aircraft, comprising the wide-cabin, high-speed Gulfstream G150®; the large-cabin, mid-range Gulfstream G200®; the new large-cabin, mid-range Gulfstream G250®; the large-cabin, mid-range Gulfstream G350®; the large-cabin, long-range G450®; the large-cabin, ultra-long-range Gulfstream G500®; the large-cabin, ultra-long-range Gulfstream G550® and the ultra-large-cabin, ultra-long-range G650®. Gulfstream also offers aircraft ownership services via Gulfstream Financial Services Division and Gulfstream Pre-Owned Aircraft Sales®. The company employs more than 9,000 people at seven major locations. We invite you to visit our Web site for more information and photos of Gulfstream aircraft at www.gulfstream.com.

General Dynamics (NYSE: GD), headquartered in Falls Church, Va., employs approximately 92,000 people worldwide. The company is a market leader in business aviation; land and expeditionary combat systems, armaments and munitions; shipbuilding and marine systems; and information systems and technologies. More information about General Dynamics is available online at www.gd.com.
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The chairman and president of the new Eclipse Aerospace, Mason Holland Jr. of Charleston, S.C. said he expects the company to reopen its doors debt-free but on a smaller scale than its predecessor on Sept. 1.

“The old Eclipse was a great company. They made a great product, but the fatal flaw was they focused on growth first and profit second,” Holland said. “We’re going to focus on profitability first and growth second.”

The new company will do business as Eclipse Aviation but has no immediate plans, given the current economy, to restart production of the Eclipse 500 at this time.

The jet-making plant shut in February, putting 800 employees out of work. When the new company opens its doors next month, it will employ 15 managers and key engineers.

Eventually Holland envisions 500 to 600 employees producing several hundred jets each year, but Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez said the company represents more than just jobs.

“Eclipse is a symbol for the city of Albuquerque,” Chavez said. “I am so delighted in its rebirth, the fact the community was able to snatch victory from defeat.”

Within about six months, plans are to employ several hundred people and once the economy recovers and the company becomes profitable, to restart production.

“They believe they can make money,” Chavez said.

Mike Press of Chesterfield, Mo., who co-founded the new company with Holland and is its executive vice president, said revenue will come from $100,000 to $500,000 worth of upgrades on each of the 259 jets produced. The owners will be charged for the upgrades, though Press said prices have not been set. A Chicago-based service center began upgrading aircraft in June.

“We’re going to price it with some profit, but we’re not going to gouge the owners,” he said. The former Eclipse firm had told owners it would do the upgrades free of charge.

The company also plans to buy back aircraft from owners and fleet operators to refurbish them for resale.

Press said the new company will examine products manufactured by Eclipse that they can market. Among the assets is a patent on a non-ozone depleting fire suppression system, which could be marketed to other jet manufacturers.

Holland, founder of Benefitfocus.com, Inc., which employs 500 people in South Carolina, was a 60 percent deposit holder of an Eclipse 500 that was never delivered. He turned from pursuing litigation against Eclipse’s former owners to buying the company after he and Press — a retired Air Force colonel, former Northrop Grumman executive and light jet broker — met with Eclipse customers.

“We went to 27 cities in 15 days and we met with over 300 owners and deposit holders of Eclipse aircraft,” Holland said. “Every single pilot and owner, unanimously, loves the plane. That’s why we decided to buy the company.”

Eclipse’s troubles came to light progressively as customers found the compnay incresingly unresponsive and rumours began toi circulae4 about it sailong close to the financila wind. In July 2008 its founder and chief executive, former Microsoft executive Vern Raburn, was ousted in a management shake-up. A month later, the company laid off nearly 40 percent of its work force and last fall failed to make payroll.

Eclipse entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in November.

A federal bankruptcy judge approved the sale of Eclipse to its largest shareholder, ETIRC Aviation, in January. When financing failed to materialize by February, the company went into Chapter 7 liquidation.

Former Eclipse executives blamed the manufacturer’s downfall on the recession, but analysts criticized its business model as flawed by failed promises to produce a high volume of jets at low cost.

Holland says the days of over-promising and bad press for Eclipse are finished.

“No big promises, just good core business,” he said.

Let us hope.

Textron Inc (TXT.N) expects deliveries of corporate jets to continue to decline next year, with recovery likely to trail corporate America’s return to profit growth by a year and a half, the diversified U.S. manufacturer’s chief executive said on Tuesday.

“I think deliveries will be slightly less next year than this year,” CEO Lewis Campbell told an investor conference in Florida that was monitored over the Internet. “Don’t read me as bullish on the return of business jets. I’m not bullish on it. We haven’t reached the bottom yet.”

Demand for business aircraft has collapsed this year, as a brutal recession left companies looking for any way to cut spending. The sector has been further hit by an image blow — private jets became something of a symbol of corporate excess after the heads of big Detroit automakers used them to fly to Washington to seek federal aid.

Textron’s Cessna unit, the world’s largest maker of corporate aircraft, now expects to deliver 290 to 300 planes this year, down from 467 in 2008. It is cutting its staff by about 45 percent, to a target of 8,900 people by the year’s end, and postponed plans for a new class of larger aircraft as it looks to cut costs

Cessna will face a large number of order cancellations in the second quarter as a result of the decision to suspend that larger aircraft, which would have been called the Columbus.

History shows that a rebound in demand for business aircraft tends to follow a recovery in overall corporate profits by six to eight quarters, Campbell said.

Textron’s competitors in corporate jets include the Gulfstream unit of General Dynamics Corp (GD.N) and Canada’s Bombardier Inc (BBDb.TO).

Full Articale at http://www.reuters.com/article/hotStocksNews/idUSTRE54I3PQ20090519