March 13, 2015
The National Aeronautic Association (NAA), on March 11, announced that the 2014 Robert J. Collier Trophy would be awarded to Gulfstream Aerospace for its development of the G650 long-range business jet. In announcing plans to bestow the annual honor to the Savannah, GA-based manufacturer, NAA noted the G650 has “strengthened business aviation through significant technological advancements in aircraft performance, cabin comfort and safety.”
“On behalf of NBAA, I offer congratulations to the entire Gulfstream team for this high honor,” said NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen. “By flying farther, faster and more efficiently than any other Gulfstream, the G650 is among those helping to meet the long-range travel demands of today’s global marketplace and will actually foster more international trade and commerce in the future.”
Unveiled in 2008 and type-certified by the FAA in 2012, the G650 is Gulfstream’s largest and fastest business aircraft, with a maximum speed of 0.925 Mach and a range of 7,000 nautical miles at 0.85 Mach. The G650 is also Gulfstream’s first fully fly-by-wire aircraft. The company announced an even longer-legged G650ER variant at the 2014 European Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (EBACE2014).
According to NAA, the Collier Trophy recognizes, “the greatest achievement in aeronautics or astronautics in America, with respect to improving the performance, efficiency, and safety of air or space vehicles, the value of which has been thoroughly demonstrated by actual use during the preceding year.”
Other nominees for the 2014 award included the General Aviation Joint Steering Committee, a joint effort between the FAA and industry to reduce fatal GA accidents; the Embraer Legacy 500 medium-size business jet; Alan Eustace and the development team for the Stratospheric Explorer (StratEx) self-contained spacesuit; the F-16 Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance Team; NASA’s Orion Exploration Flight Test-1 team and the development team for the Aurora Flight Sciences long-endurance Orion unmanned aircraft system (UAS.)
International Business Aviation Council Ltd.