Gulfstream G-150

Three of the figures that decide a midsize booking belong to the G-150: 2,988 nm of range, 80 cu ft of baggage and a 475 kt top speed, each the highest among the seven midsize aircraft we charter. That is an unusual sweep for one airframe, and it arrives with a visible counterweight — at 208 in the cabin is the shortest here, and a party of eight registers that before anything else. Gulfstream has ended production. What the type puts in front of a charterer is a clear proposition rather than a balanced one: the aircraft that goes furthest, moves quickest and swallows the most luggage, in the smallest cabin of the seven.

The cabin is 69 in wide and 68.9 in high, seating seven to eight, and those are ordinary numbers for the class. What is not ordinary is the compartment behind them. Eighty cubic feet across eight bags in an airframe this size is why the G-150 gets specified for ski parties and golf groups, where the luggage rather than the passenger count sets the limit. The range figure has a second use as well: this is the one aircraft here that reaches destinations the rest of the class has to plan a stop for, and it does so with the bags aboard rather than in spite of them.

Three class-leading figures