About five years ago, the first production G550 aircraft flew from Savannah-Hilton Head International Airport on its first flight. The flight which took place on July 18, 2002, lasted five hours and one minute and that recorded the longest first flight of any new Gulfstream aircraft model.

Joseph T.Lombrado, the President of Gulfstream said,"When the G550 wheels lifted off from the runway on that hot summer morning, there was a collective cheer from the hundreds of employees watching. While it was nearing 100 degrees outside, we really didn't mind the heat. We knew we were witnessing something very special."

John O'Meara, the chief test pilot at Gulfstream and project pilot Al Moros took the airplane through its full flight envelope – flying up to the 51,000 feet maximum cruise altitude – and beyond,including a test dive of Mach .955.

Having landed the plane, O'Meara stated that "the aircraft performed like it was ready for customer delivery." The G550 which was introduced in 2000 features the PlaneView® cockpit, which includes the new Honeywell Primus Epic avionics suite, a signature Cursor Control Device and Gulfstream Enhanced Vision System (EVS). The Enhanced Vision System is the first pilot vision-enhancing equipment to be certified and endorsed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

The 124 G550 business jets in service are presently experiencing a 99.82 percent dispatch reliability rate. The jets have flown a collective 119,024 hours and completed more than 47,000 takeoffs and landing.

Speed records has been set by the G550. The records include a 7,301 nautical mile flight from Seoul, South Korea, to Orlando, Fla. in Oct. 2003, less than three weeks after it started operation.