At long last on March 30, Gulfstream Aerospace was able to celebrate the certification of its new flagship, the ultra-long-range, ultra-high-tech G700, after an approval process that took at least two years longer than the Savannah, Georgia airframer anticipated.
Announced in 2019, the company initially targeted 2022 for certification but by April 2022, General Dynamics chairman and CEO Phebe Novakovic warned of delays looming related to time-consuming, extra requirements that she said were “the result of events independent of us.”
Gulfstream later had hoped to have the ticket in hand by the end of 2023, with the anticipation of delivering 15 in that year. It was said to have built 50 by the end of the year as it prepped for deliveries.
When announcing the long-awaited approval, Gulfstream president Mark Burns proclaimed: “We have successfully completed the most rigorous certification program in company history with the G700.”
Speaking to AIN during Qatar Executive’s unveiling event of its first two G700s in Doha on May 22, Burns said the longer-than-initially-expected certification process of the new model was in large part due to the congressional directives in the U.S. calling for more oversight during product approvals.
The FAA requested more elements to be documented and tested and demanded more test flying as well. All this testing has created “an extremely mature aircraft,” Burns said, adding “The good news is that we did not have to change the aircraft. The aircraft remained as it was a year ago.”
Gulfstream’s flagship G700 received EASA validation in mid-May, and the Qatar General Civil Aviation Authority’s approval followed soon after, allowing the twinjet to be delivered to and operated by Qatar Executive. Gulfstream is in the process of seeking G700 validation by more than a dozen national aviation authorities, including China, Canada, and the UK, Burns noted.
Meanwhile, in the greater Dallas-Fort Worth area, helicopter manufacturer Bell has been developing perhaps its most advanced, and certainly its largest commercial helicopter yet with the Bell 525. Like the Gulfstream 700, this aircraft is equipped with new and far-reaching systems, such as a full fly-by-wire system, a first in the civil rotorcraft sector.
Bell announced the 525 in 2012 intending to carve a new niche in the super medium market. The program received a setback in 2016 when a prototype crashed. But overcoming that, the helicopter manufacturer moved forward and tentatively targeted a 2017 date for approval.
But then Bell changed. It informed reporters that it was no longer going to set a timeline for certification, with then-CEO Mitch Snyder saying that it is a joint process with the FAA. Again last year, Snyder tepidly pointed to the end of 2023 as a possibility but stressed this was in the hands of the FAA.
Then there’s the Dassault Falcon 6X, which was announced in 2018 as the follow-on to the ill-fated 5X. Certification slipped—but just a little in comparison—on this program as well; the wide-cabin jet received both its EASA certification and FAA validation in August 2023.
A Moving Target
From the outside, certification programs are always a bit of a moving target. But long gone are the days of Cessna Aircraft, now Textron Aviation, unveiling a follow-on aircraft and having it certified and in the market a few years later.
There are many reasons for this. Covid brought complexities into the workplace with remote working and early retirements. Dassault pushed back its Falcon 10X timeline to 2027, and Dassault Aviation CEO and president Eric Trappier pointed to complications surrounding work during the pandemic as a prime reason. Speaking to reporters during EBACE in late May, he added, “We are now confident that [2027] should work.”
Both remote work and the wave of retirements impacted the FAA as well. Pete Bunce, president of the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA), in 2023 testified on Capitol Hill about the delays involving certification and expressed concern about the turnover at FAA—40 percent of certification engineers had less than two years of experience. He said training them was hindered because of the dispersed workforce in the wake of the pandemic. Congress in the most recent reauthorization bill included a directive to ensure workers worked remotely in cases where it made sense in their jobs.
A second, and at least equally influential reason, is the Boeing factor. The FAA has come under substantial scrutiny globally in the aftermath of the Max crashes and subsequent investigations as well as with the production issues that surfaced.
Congress put in a variety of controls, including stepped-up oversight of delegation activities, through the Aircraft Certification, Safety, and Accountability Act of 2020. No change is implemented quickly but all agree having a permanent FAA administrator in place, Michael Whitaker, is helping this.
“After the Boeing accidents, the certification agencies are more meticulous, and quite rightly, to make sure that passengers will be safe. Therefore, things are a bit more difficult,” Trappier told media and analysts during the company’s 2023 results presentation in March. EASA, which is in charge of the certification of the Falcon business jets, demanded several modifications to the 6X, he said. Because of these required modifications, the 6X entered service only on November 30.
In the meantime, the Pratt & Whitney PW812D-powered 6X obtained approval from the aviation authorities of Turkey, the Isle of Man, and San Marino, while the certification process is ongoing in Canada, India, and the UK.
The French OEM is also still working on obtaining additional product approvals such as for steep approach as well as for its FalconEye Combined Vision System (CVS). According to Dassault’s executive v-p of civil aircraft, Carlos Brana, these are just a matter of time, and “up to 99 percent of the missions can already now be performed with the aircraft as it is.”
