The 8 Best Gulfstream Jets, From the G800 to the Quiet Spike
Since its modest beginnings in 1958, Savannah, Georgia-based Gulfstream Aerospace Corp., has been credited with producing more than 2,000 aircraft worldwide. With hundreds of business-jet speed records logged, patents on supersonic and testing programs, and a backlog estimated at $20 billion, this aerospace company, a subsidiary of General Dynamics, is poised to accelerate this year as its newest offering, G800, enters service as the longest-range business jet in the world.
In the late ’50s, this aviation company grew up with Grumman Aircraft Engineering Co. following its first twin turboprop production. As the jet age for corporate aircraft took flight in the 1960s, Grumman separated its military and civil aircraft production. In the early 1970s, the Gulfstream line was sold to American Jet Industries, headed by aerospace titan Allen Paulson, who renamed the company Gulfstream American.
In 1999, it was acquired by General Dynamics for $5.3 billion. Since then, it has grown its model lineup along with production facilities on its 49.2-acre campus in Savannah, Georgia. Among recent expansions is a $150m, 142,000 sq. foot facility that opened in November 2023. The new facilities doubled the production capacity for its G400, G500, and G600 business jets. It also has a completions facility in Wisconsin.
Sixty-seven years after it launched, Gulfstream has become a cultural icon, a favorite of rappers like Drake and heads of state. It also continues to design and produce some of the world’s fastest and longest-range business aircraft. Here are a few of our favorites.
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Gulfstream I
Image Credit: Gulfstream The first flight of Gulfstream I in 1958 was one of the first of an entirely new mode of transportation for business travelers, and the beginning of a 67-year legacy. This low-wing turboprop airplane could accommodate 10 to 14 passengers. Features included a pressurized luxe cabin and retractable tricycle landing gear. The Gulfstream 1 was powered by two Rolls-Royce Dart turboprops.
The new aircraft picked up famous fans, including Walt Disney, who purchased a Gulfstream I in 1964. Disney’s Gulfstream I was nicknamed “The Mouse” by air traffic controllers for its vanity call letters N234MM. Yes, the MM stands for Mickey Mouse, and it’s still on display at the Palm Springs Air Museum.
The Gulfstream I had a cruise speed of 348 mph and a range of 2,540 nautical miles, which sounds tame now, but it was fast for its era. Over its 11-year production, 200 aircraft were produced.
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Gulfstream GII
Image Credit: Gulfstream In the late ’50s and early ’60s, there was a fierce competition among manufacturers for business and private jets, including the Lockheed JetStar (1957), mid-sized Hawker Siddeley DH-125 (1962), Dassault Falcon 20 (1963), and the iconic Learjet (1963). In 1966, Grumman-Gulfstream launched a high-speed, long-range twin jet aircraft that blew past its turboprop G1 predecessor. The Gulfstream II, operated by two pilots and certified to seat 19 passengers, had a range of 3,550 nautical miles and a cruise speed of 546 mph. It was the first business jet to fly non-stop from Teterboro, New Jersey, to London. It also had the first stand-up cabin height, measuring a spacious 6.1 feet. About 256 Gulfstream IIs were built from 1967 through 1980.
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Gulfstream III
Image Credit: Gulfstream In 1979, newly formed Gulfstream America introduced a completely new wing design that included airfoil sections and winglets to dramatically enhance speed and efficiency. The size of Gulfstream III’s wing increased by six feet compared to its predecessor, expanding its fuselage and range to 3,650 nautical miles. In the cabin, the jet accommodates up to 14 passengers. In 1983, this jet was the first to fly over both the north and south poles. The Gulfstream III was certified in 1980, and during its relatively short six-year production run, the company turned out 206 examples.
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G280
Image Credit: Gulfstream Introduced in 2009 and still in production, the G280 melds luxe appointments with speed and distance. Carrying 10 passengers with a cabin that can be customized with two living areas, a fully equipped forward galley, and a spacious aft lavatory, the super mid-sized jet can cruise at Mach .85 (652 mph) up to 3,600 nautical miles. This aircraft is steep-approached certified to access short runways and high-altitude airports. The aircraft boasts the lowest cabin altitude in its class, with many pilot extras like autothrottles, autobrake, PlaneView280TM flight deck, and its Enhanced Vision System for low-visibility conditions. The fuselage, empennage, and landing gear are built in Israel, and then the aircraft moved to the U.S. for interior finishing and exterior painting.
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G650
Image Credit: Gulfstream Built from a clean-sheet design and introduced in 2008, the Gulfstream G650 was a game-changer for the company, marrying advances in wing design, cutting-edge avionics, and two efficient Rolls-Royce engines that have now racked more than 125 speed records since the G650’s first flight in 2009.
With a top speed of Mach .925 (709 mph), this aircraft has an impressive range of 7,000 to 7,500 nautical miles—so it can transport up to 13 passengers from, say, Seattle to Buenos Aires. The interior can be configured with three living areas. It also includes safety features like the Gulfstream’s Predictive Landing Performance System, fly-by-wire, a fully customizable cabin with up to four living areas, a forward or aft galley, a forward or aft lavatory, and 16 panoramic windows.
The G650 and the extended-range version, the G650ER, has an impressive lineup of owners, including Bill Gates, Michael Jordan, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and many others.
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Quiet Spike
Image Credit: Gulfstream In 2006, Gulfstream partnered with NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center in a testing program called Quiet Spike to reduce the sonic boom resulting from supersonic flight. The program was way ahead its time, as both NASA and private aircraft manufacturers are working on the same issue these days. One of the innovations that resulted from Quiet Spike included testing a retractable, lance-like spike mounted on the nose of a F-25B research test aircraft. The spike created weak shock waves that transformed the sharp crack of the sonic boom into a whisper. While Gulfstream’s Quiet Spike testing received a patent and aeronautics awards, it was shelved. But it did pave the way to build the X-54 experimental aircraft that is now being tested by NASA, to create quiet supersonic jets that could be commercially viable for business aviation.
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G700
Image Credit: Gulfstream Introduced in late 2019 and certified in 2023, Gulfstream’s G700 creates a new private-aviation paradigm for UHNWIs, corporate execs, and heads of state with the airframe manufacturer’s most spacious interior and range of 7,750 nautical miles. The Gulfstream is fast, too, having set some 65 city-pair speed records with a maximum speed of Mach .935, or 717 mph, thanks to wing and engine performance improvements.
The G700 can accommodate up to 19 passengers and five living zones, including an ultra-galley up front, and in the rear, a grand suite with shower. Among its many exceptional cabin features, the Gulfstream G700 also has 20 panoramic oval windows for natural light, interior lights that regulate the circadian rhythms to mitigate jet lag, and a cabin pressurization system that keeps the cabin pressurization at 2,800 feet when flying at 41,000 feet. The cockpit is defined by technological advances like a Combined Vision System that displays a terrain overlay with key flight data in a dual head-up display, and many more features.
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G800
Image Credit: Gulfstream Gulfstream’s newest jet, the G800, will tie the Bombardier Global 8000 for the title of the world’s longest-range business aircraft with a range of 8,000 nautical miles. That means nonstop from Los Angeles to Tokyo and New York to Dubai. Last December, the company launched its production test aircraft to validate its cabin design and performance, and it is anticipated to enter service in the second half of 2025.
