Features Operations
Pint-Sized Gulfstream

Mention Gulfstream and one immediately thinks of all that is large and
expensive about corporate air travel. Since 1958, the company has used
size, power and comfort to define what high-end business aviation is
all about. So more than a few eyebrows were raised in June 2001 when
General Dynamics, Gulfstream’s parent, paid US$330 million for Galaxy
Aerospace, a troubled joint venture between Israel Aircraft Industries
(IAI) and travel/leisure giant Hyatt Corporation.

The
purchase filled a critical gap in Gulfstream’s strategy to provide
customers with entry, move-up and add-on opportunities. Galaxy’s
midsize Astra SPX (which was banging heads for market share against
Lear and Cessna), and the newer super midsize Galaxy, handed Gulfstream
an immediate ticket into the fastest growing market segment in business
aviation, without the expense and time of product development.

During
the 2002 NBAA convention, Honeywell forecast that deliveries in the
midsize corporate aircraft segment would grow rapidly from the current
level of approximately 140 to 250 per year by 2012. The sense is that
aircraft of this size have large marketgrowth potential due to high
perceived customer value, large backlogs and significant interest by
fractional share owners.