Gulfstream Aerospace has assembled a diverse supplier team for its new G500 and G600 large cabin jets, which the OEM announced on October 14.
Power for the new models will come from Pratt & Whitney Canada’s new PW800 engines. The 16,000-pound-thrust PW814GA and PW815GA powerplants have the same core technology used in the company’s family of geared turbofan commercial engines. The new engine was on display at P&WC’s NBAA exhibit along with the company’s PW600, PW300 and PT6A engines.
Nordam will design, engineer, develop and manufacture the inlet, nacelle and thrust reverser for the new engines. “This is the largest integrated powerplant system and thrust reverser Nordam has ever built,” said CEO Meredith Siegfried. She said the program is expected to create 300 new jobs at Nordam’s plant in Tulsa, Okla. New Nordam technology for the project includes an all-composite, asymmetrical pivot door thrust reverser; cowl doors constructed using automated fiber-placement (AFP); a one-piece, composite, double-degree-of-freedom acoustic inlet-barrier liner; and use of AFP “out of autoclave” vacuum-bagged cured material
Honeywell’s new Primus Epic avionics with touchscreen technology is being incorporated into the new Symmetry flight decks on the G500 and G600. The five touchscreens mounted in the cockpit will be used for systems controls, flight management, communications, checklists and monitoring weather and flight information. “Pilots use touchscreens in their daily consumer devices and because of this they are much more accustomed to interfacing with machines through interactive screens,” said Jeff Merdich, director of product marketing for cockpit systems at Honeywell.
The Honeywell avionics feature the SmartView synthetic vision system, eight-inch diagonal LCD screens for controllers, 2-D and 3-D airport moving maps, cockpit display of traffic information and flight deck connectivity via wireless data loading.
Honeywell is also providing the HGT400(G) auxiliary power unit (APU) and the environmental control system and cabin pressure control system for the aircraft. The new APU is approximately 30 pounds lighter that the average APU in its class, according to Honeywell.
GE Aviation is supplying the data concentration and network, the advanced power management system and the advanced health management system on the aircraft. The data concentration and network builds on GE’s core computing system from the Boeing 787. “This is the first business jet application of an integrated data network incorporating multiple aircraft systems,” said Alan Caslavka, president of avionics and digital systems for GE Aviation. The system provides a highly configurable data network for the aircraft and seamlessly connects the avionics and utility functions. It can be rapidly reconfigured to enable integration of new technology over the life of the airplane, according to GE. The health management system builds on GE technology in the PlaneConnect system aboard Gulfstream’s flagship G650 and provides monitoring of 9,000 different parameters with real-time communications through satellite, Wi-Fi and 3G cellular.
Pilot and maintenance training will be provided at FlightSafety International’s Savannah, Ga. campus. FlightSafety recently completed design and manufacture of a full flight simulator for the G500 and G600 and it will be installed in Savannah at the end of this month. The FS1000 simulator initially will be used by Gulfstream’s engineering and flight test personnel and FlightSafety’s training program development teams. The simulator is equipped with FlightSafety’s Vital 1000 visual system, electric motion-cueing system and advanced instructor operating station. FlightSafety said the new simulator features tightly integrated computer hardware and software across subsystems, which allows for “more accurate and higher fidelity simulation” than found in previous-generation machines.
