Originally Posted by mutt
I'm actually surprised that the 500/600 don't have the 650 cabin. From a passenger point of view, what exactly are the new aircraft offering compared to the 450/550?
Its definitely an upgrade from the 450/550.
* max cabin width increased from 7'4" to 7'11"
* floor width increased 66" to 74"
* cabin height 6'2" to 6'4"
* Cabin length from 40'4" and 43'11" to 41'6" and 45'2" in the G450/550 and G500/600 respectively
* uses the larger windows from the G650
* has the higher 4,850' cabin pressure at max altitude of the G650
* Higher M.85 to M.90 cruise speeds of the G650 (supposing they greatly increase the estimated M.90 range as they did with the G650)
Definitely surprised they didn't use the G650 fuselage. They use the same fuselage for G-II, G-III, G-IV, and G-V, and then all of the sudden within 2 model launches they have 2 new fuselages. It makes me wonder what their motivation was. I don't buy their quote that it completely had to do with the G650 fuselage being too large for their performance goals. Engineers can design anything to meet their performance goals. I know they have been having problems with suppliers on the G650, is it possible that they couldn't increase production of the fuselage from the G650 because of supplier issues? Maybe there are tenets of their risk sharing agreements with suppliers that prevent Gulfstream from just taking production of components in-house without buying out the supplier. Its possible that facing an intransigent supplier, they figured it was better to design a substantially new fuselage that they could build as they wanted to leave the limited supply of G650-size fuselages for the G650 program, and to provider additional leverage over intransigent supplier. Like, "hey I know you're playing hardball trying to get us to renegotiate our contracts and pay you more for fuselage components, but we just wanted you to know that we have an alternative large-enough fuselage in production now and if you don't stop ******* with us we're just going to move the G650 successor to this new fuselage that you have nothing to do with".
Or it could be something worse... maybe there are fundamental problems with the G650 fuselage design that warranted a complete redesign... who knows.