I heard a rumor about a Gulfstream test jet being at Boeing Field. With a Saturday morning free, I decided to head over and investigate. One of the things I had seen suggested it might be the G700. Since that had only recently had its first flight, I was surprised it would be operating out of the west coast rather than Georgia so I decided to try and see it. Of course, it wasn’t the G700. Instead it was a G600 test airframe. Since I had not seen a G600, I was still pleased to catch it. The weather was crummy and it was due to go back to Savannah so I was wondering what sort of shots I would get.
Like any test jet, it didn’t depart when scheduled. It was an hour later than planned when it rolled to the runway and then hung around at the hold point for ages. Then it turned and taxied down towards the end where I was. I couldn’t see it departing in the opposite direction because SeaTac was still flowing to the south and wasn’t showing any sign of changing. It came down past me to the end of the runway and then turned around and taxied back the way it had come. After all of this it departed into the overcast.
Given that I was expected a departure from the far end and a swift climb into the gloom, I hadn’t expected to get many shots I was pleased with. Therefore, this sojourn down to my end and back provided plenty of chances to get a bunch of shots so this turned out to be a lot luckier than expected. I am also a sucker for a jet in primer so thrown in a few instrumented panels for test purposes and I am a happy camper!
This G600 was coming into land at Farnborough while I was visiting. The conditions were far from ideal for photographing anything flying but I am not going to pass one up if the chance presents itself. I was close to the approach path so had an almost head on position. Not ideal but it would be fine. However, what struck me as I looked at the images afterwards was the flaps. Gulfstream has never impressed me with their wing designs. They always seem to have just gone with a larger wing to achieve whatever performance was needed and the flaps on all of their jets seem to be barn doors rather than some advanced design. It seems that the current generation of jets is no different. I guess it doesn’t matter enough to their sales so why bother?
