Gulfstream Aerospace - Definition and Overview

Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation is located in Savannah, Georgia, USA and has been a unit of General Dynamics since 2001.

"The company has produced more than 1,400 aircraft for corporate, government, private and military customers around the world", according to the Gulfstream website. Pilots and owners tend to choose Gulfstream because they are reputedly the most technologically advanced and versatile business jet aircraft available.

History

The first aircraft named Gulfstream was the twin-turboprop Grumman Gulfstream I. The success of this program lead to development of the bizjet Grumman Gulfstream II. In 1978, Grumman sold Gulfstream to American Jet Industries, renaming the company to Grumman American. The purchase of Rockwell's Aero Commander program completed the formation of the company. In 1985, Chrysler acquired Gulfstream, and renamed it again to Gulfstream Aerospace.

In 1999, General Dynamics acquired Gulfstream from Forstmann Little, and in 2001 added the Galaxy Aerospace Company from Israeli Aircraft Industries (IAI). Their production lines are used to co-produce the G100/G150 and G200 with IAI.

Former Aircraft Types

• Grumman Gulfstream I, a twin turboprop business aircraft
• Grumman Gulfstream II, from now on all Gulfstreams were twin engine business jets
• Gulfstream III
• Gulfstream IV
• Gulfstream V
• Sukhoi-Gulfstream S-21 supersonic business jet

Current Aircraft Types

Gulfstream currently (2004) produces eight models of private aircraft:

• G100/G150 is based on the IAI Astra SPX.
• G200 is based on the IAI Galaxy.
• G300, based upon the Gulfstream III
• G400/G450, based upon the Gulfstream IV
• G500/G550, based upon the Gulfstream V (which was introduced in 2002)

External links

• Gulfstream Web Site (http://www.gulfstream.com)