If — at any point of your very privileged life — you ever felt that your means of private travel were getting too small for comfort, Gulfstream has just the solution. No longer satisfied with being second on the leaderboard after Bombardier Inc. Global knocked the already-massive G650 off its throne with the 7500 model, the Georgia-based manufacturer has dreamt up the G700 to take the lead as the world’s biggest private jet again.
The brand new business jet will make a behemoth example of luxury travel when it takes to the skies in 2022, especially since it’s the “tallest and widest cabin in [the] industry”, according to the firm’s president Mark Burns.
Every inch counts when you’re trapped in a plane for hours on end, and the Gulfstream G700 knows this. It stretches roughly 33m and has a cabin that’s 0.6m longer than its Bombardier competitor, and will be slightly higher and wider too. Range will also be upgraded to 7,500 nautical miles (up from the G650’s 7,000), with the same maximum speed of Mach 0.925, just under the speed of sound. Still, that’s 200 nautical miles short of Bombardier’s 7,700.
If you can look past this slightly disenchanting fact, the G700 promises to impress with the versatility of its configuration. Besides a master bedroom suite with a spa shower, the space can also be divided into five areas. The optional six-seater dining room doubles up as a conference space, and up to 19 passengers can be seated within.
To enhance the flying experience, Gulfstream has also incorporated a circadian lighting system around the plane to reduce jet lag. It’s also designed to be easier on pilots; the Symmetry Flight Deck in the cockpit has “Phase-of-Flight” intelligence and touch screen avionics to make starting up the flight more efficient. Meanwhile, the Predictive Landing System provides advanced warnings of runway deviations so adjustments can be made accordingly.
It’s little surprise then, that Qatar Airways has already snapped up 10 of these babies for its charter service Qatar Executive.
With a list price of S$102 million — the most expensive in the market — the G700’s price tag is clearly proportionate to its sheer size, but it’s true when they say you get what you pay for.
Shatricia Nair
Managing Editor
Shatricia Nair has a passion for motoring, beauty, and wellness, and is perpetually knee-deep in the world of V8s, retinols, and latest fitness trends. She has nine years of experience writing for digital media, and her bylines have appeared in Prestige, and Augustman. She'll do (almost) anything for good chocolate chip cookies.
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