Gulfstream Aerospace raised the curtains on the latest member of its vaunted family of business jets in a ceremony today in Charleston, S.C. The new jet, dubbed the G650, will become the flagship of what is already considered by many to be private aviation’s most prestigious fleet of aircraft.

Still in the design phase at this point, the G650, which will make its first flight in 2009, will boast some of the most impressive specs of any plane in general aviation, including a range of over 7,000 nautical miles and a top speed of Mach 0.925, making it the fastest civil aircraft in the world. The plane looks quite similar to the last of Gulfstream’s iterations, the G550. The G650 adds an extra row of windows on its slightly stockier fuselage, giving the plane space to comfortably seat 20 passengers, one more than the G550 accommodates. Up front in the cockpit, pilots will make use of the G650’s new all glass instrument panel, a series of screens that replace the standard mechanical gauges typically found in the dash, and connect to a quadruple redundant fly-by-wire control system.

Gulfstream anticipates making its first deliveries of the new jet in 2012, when the G650 will likely find a home with the NetJets fleet, major corporations and a few very prosperous individuals. In particular, the G650’s long range should make it very popular for customers doing business in Asia.

Gulfstream has yet to announce a price for the G650, but it should be somewhere north of the $60 million that G550’s currently go for.