The leadership at Gulfstream was wearing out their dancing shoes yesterday at media conference. If there had been champagne, it would have flowed freely. The highlight was the presence for the first time at an NBAA show of a newly certified G650 and G280, backed by a $16 billion backlog and news of revenues up 30 percent in the third quarter. Gulfstream expects to begin making customer deliveries of both the G650 and G280 before year-end 2012, further padding a year that saw 78 green deliveries in the first three quarters, 18 more than in the same period in 2011.

Adding to the air of bonhomie, president Larry Flynn noted that the G650 comes with substantially improved performance. Gulfstream had originally projected a max range of 5,000 nm at Mach 0.90. The revised range is 6,000 nm at the same speed, making city pairs such as Tokyo to New York possible at speeds faster than any other business jet. Further, the G650’s takeoff balanced field length was reduced to 5,858 feet from the original 6,000 feet at 5he jet’s mtow of 99,600 pounds.

“Operators are gaining a distinct advantage with these improvements,” said Flynn. “They’re going farther, faster and requiring less runway. If business jets are time machines, then the G650 is the ultimate in business travel.” Flynn also noted 10 city pair records set in 2012 by aircraft from the Gulfstream stable–one by the G150, two by the G650 and seven by the G280.

Gulfstream president of product support Mark Burns took to the media conference stage to point out that the infrastructure necessary to assist operators of the two latest business jets has already been established, including 44 facilities on six continents. Technicians, he said, have amassed more than 200,000 hours of hands-on experience with the G650 and G280.

In other good news, the Gulfstream leadership announced:

• In a demonstration of Gulfstream’s commitment to sustainability, the entire fleet of Gulfstream demonstration aircraft flew to the convention with both engines on each airplane operating on a 50-percent blend of Green Jet Fuel. Each gallon of camelina-based Honeywell UOP Green Jet Fuel burned instead of petroleum jet fuel reduces the carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions by 68 percent, base on life-cycle analysis.
• Gulfstream has just introduced product-specific mobile applications for every aircraft in its in-production fleet. Each app features interactive elements, including an introduction to the aircraft in the form of interactive brochures, an interactive worldwide city-pair stage map, worldwide product support information and a photo gallery.
• Gulfstream is demonstrating its new interior-design DesignBook, which allows customers to evaluate potential paint schemes, cabin layouts and interior cabin selections.
• New in the maintenance venue is Gulfstream’s tablet-friendly version of the CMP.net maintenance tracking service. Now customers can access their CMP.net account using virtually any mobile device or browser platform.