A Gulfstream G280 owned and flown by David MacNeil, founder and CEO of automobile accessory manufacturer WeatherTech, flew 3,922 nm/7,264 km nonstop last month, marking the longest flight to date by the super-midsize jet. The airplane traveled from Chicago Aurora Municipal Airport to Tours Val de Loire Airport in France with four passengers and two crewmembers, including MacNeil, in 7 hours 40 minutes at an average speed of Mach 0.80.
Despite its 3,600-nm book-number range, MacNeil’s G280 landed with reserve fuel in excess of NBAAIFR requirements on the record-breaking flight, according to Gulfstream Aerospace. “This flight highlights the G280’s long-range capability and fuel efficiency,” said Gulfstream senior vice president of worldwide sales and marketing Scott Neal.
“The G280 has far exceeded our lofty expectations for performance, comfort, safety, efficiency and range,” said MacNeil. “As an experiment on this trip, we climbed directly to the aircraft’s maximum altitude of 45,000 feet out of Chicago at maximum takeoff weight, and it never dipped below Mach 0.80.”
Since entering service in late 2012, the G280 has earned more than 50 city-pair speed records.