According to Gulfstream, the aircraft achieved this speed during flutter testing, which evaluates the aircraft’s damping responses following an input from an external test device.
Flutter testing is performed at a variety of frequencies, speeds, altitudes, weights and centers of gravity. In order to achieve the maximum speed of Mach 0.995, Gulfstream experimental test pilots Tom Horne and Gary Freeman along with flight test engineer Bill Osborne took Serial Number (S/N) 6001 into a dive, pitching the aircraft’s nose 16 to 18 degrees below the horizon.
During the dive, flutter exciters introduced a range of vibration frequencies to the wing, tail and flight control surfaces to ensure the aircraft naturally dampened out the oscillations without further action from the pilots.
Source: Gulfstream
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