Duncan Aviation has refurbished a Gulfstream G550 with full interior redesigns and avionics upgrades. The customer took the aircraft to Duncan as it was starting to show its age and needed to be refreshed with a new look. According to Duncan the design inspiration of the refit came from the Gulfstream G600.

Lead designer Jack Bauder says: “The owner really liked the G600 seats, but the seat design is always limited by the seat drawings and certifications. Our upholstery shop did a fantastic job blending the G600 seat design with the existing structure to ensure the seats met certifications.”

Achieving the plated finish on the cabin handrails was another challenge. “Since they were too large to plate or hydrodip, the finish shop came up with a creative solution. They sanded the existing rails down to bare aluminium and applied a transparent Cerakote finish to match the clear-coating on the cabin plating.”

Senior avionics sales rep Mike Morgan says that they installed the Ku/Ka tail radome that allows Ka or Ku frequency band satcom systems to be installed under the same radome. “This is a big deal because this is a newer STC on the market and we are now able to provide options for high-speed data system installations to our customers.”

Duncan also installed the Collins Aerospace Venue with AVDS cabin management system, an upgrade specific to Gulfstream aircraft that have existing legacy Collins ACMS or CMS-1 systems. The Venue CMS was paired with the Bongiovi audio system.