With AIN Media Group's Aviation International News and its predecessor Aviation Convention News celebrating the company's 50th year of continuous publication this year, AIN’s editorial staff is going back through the archives each month to bring readers some interesting events that were covered over the past half-century.
REWIND (MAY 1988): There’s nothing quite so fragile as an “unbreakable” record. That’s what round-the-world record-setting pilot Clay Lacy discovered on February 27 when Gulfstream Aerospace president Allen Paulson flew one of his company’s GIVs to shatter by 45 minutes and 41 seconds the world-girdling mark Lacy set January 30 when he piloted a borrowed United Airlines Boeing 747SP “once around the planet.” In all, Paulson set 11 round-the-world marks in the flight, including records in both the National Aeronautic Association’s (NAA) Unlimited category and the C-1.k class 55,000 to 77,000 lb. category.
FAST-FORWARD: The GIV Paulson used, dubbed “The Pursuit of Perfection,” was a stripped-down bare-metal aircraft with just 10 hours on the airframe. It was fitted with an extra internal 1,200-gallon fuel tank and accomplished the record-setting eastbound flight in 36 hours, eight minutes, and 34 seconds, setting NAA-certified speed records on every leg (which included fueling stops in Shannon, Ireland; Dubai, UAE; Taipei, Taiwan; and Maui, Hawaii) before returning to Houston. Three Gulfstream test pilots and an official NAA observer accompanied Paulson on the flight. After Lacy’s earlier record, Boeing stated that no current aircraft could best the 747SP’s record, to which Paulson later replied: “I guess they forgot what David did to Goliath.” The record stands to this day.
