falconpilot said:
WHAT?!?! GOOFSTREAM SUPERIOR THAN A FALCON!!! GIVE SOME OF WHAT YOUR SMOKIN" BUDDY!
I could have sworn that the 900 has more cabin volume than a GIV, but I could be wrong... Personally I would rather fly a Falcon than any Gulfstream any day of the week and twice on Sunday.... But I'm pretty Falcon bias. Plus I haven't had the luxury of getting to fly any of the new Gulfstreams, just the GII and GIII. They are a sexy lookin' airplane though!! Anyhow... Also the operation cost is cheaper with the 900 to, atleast it was last time I checked... Not sure what the MX cost difference is.. Plus 3 engines is better than 2! However, I did read somewhere that the chances of a Gulfstream's engines failing are as good as all 3 on a 900 failing at the same time....
G450 Interior volume is 1,525 cu.ft (G500/G550 - 1,669 cu. ft.), Falcon 900EX interior volume is 1,267 cu. ft.
I, for one, would really prefer not to fly at all on Sunday, however...
You are almost right - statisticaly you are more likely to lose two of the Falcon's Honeywell TFE 731's (originally designed as a DC-10 APU) than one of the Gulfstream's Rolls-Royces. Part of the reason is the rotational velocity of the spools on the two engines. The Garrett runs at 101% and just over 40,000 rpm, while the Rolls-Royce loafs along at 88-89% with the fastest spool on the engine turning just 11,000 rpm.
Maintenance costs are a component of operating costs - did you notice the 12,000 hour TBO on the Gulfstream's engines?
And by the way, if three-engined airplanes were a good idea, someone besides Dassault would make them. Even Yak stopped. The reason the Falcon was made with three engines is because their was no engine available with an appropriate thrust deck to allow for a two engine design.
Dassault has always grandfathered design elements when desiging new aircraft - the 900 was built on the 50 wing, the 2000 has the 900 cabin - so it is likely that the new 7X wing will be the basis of a new product line.
Note Bene: At Dassault's request Honeywell no longer releases TFE-731 engine reliability statistics.