Jet attempts to set speed record for flight from SLO airport to London. See the video
A jet took off from the San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport on Thursday afternoon intent on setting its 100th overall speed record — and the flight could also mark the first such record-breaker from the local airport as a whole.
According to ACI Jet President and CEO William Borgsmiller, a Bombardier Global 7500 jet was expected to set the speed record for a flight between San Luis Obispo and London on Thursday.
ACI Jet, which is headquartered in San Luis Obispo, is Bombardier's West Coast service facility and parts depot.
Borgsmiller said the jet involved in Thursday's flight was a 'demonstrator,' which companies use to show prospective customers the features of the aircraft, akin to a model home. As it travels around the world being shown off to customers, the company also takes the opportunity to test out and break other records, he added.
The latest flight was between what's called an 'unclaimed city pair,' which means it had never before been recorded for speed purposes, Borgsmiller said. This means no matter how long it took, the jet will set the record.
The exact times had not yet been confirmed as of Friday morning, but Borgsmiller said the jet would likely have made the flight in roughly nine hours, compared with the 10-and-a-half it would take for a normal flight over that distance.
'They don't want somebody else to clip it, so they probably went as fast as they could,' he said with a laugh.
The flight may be noteworthy for another reason as well: Borgsmiller said he believed it could be the first aeronautical speed record set from the San Luis Obispo airport.
That could potentially change after Thursday's flight.
Borgsmiller said a number of out-of-town visitors attended the special takeoff from the airport Thursday, almost all of whom who had never before been to the area.
'I guarantee almost everybody I saw in the last two days is going to be back here in summertime with their family for a vacation,' he said. 'Everybody is blown away by the area and how nice it is and all the stuff that's here that's just kind of like, 'I never even knew this existed.''
Because of that exposure, Borgsmiller described the flight as a 'milestone' for the region.
'It was cool for us because to get San Luis Obispo and our company on those news channels ... that'll be read about all over the world,' he said. 'It was a cool public relations event for us for sure.'
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