Eli Lilly's Gulfstream G500 N309EL lands in Indianapolis from Rome

Eli Lilly and Company's Gulfstream G500, tail number N309EL, flew from Ciampino–G. B. Pastine International Airport in Rome to Indianapolis International Airport on Wednesday, November 11, 2026. The aircraft departed at 11:49 UTC and landed at 21:01 UTC, spending 9 hours and 12 minutes in the air.

The great-circle distance between the two airports is 4,220 nautical miles, or 4,856 miles. The aircraft reached a top altitude of 47,000 feet and a top ground speed of 503 knots, with an average ground speed of 459 knots. Our estimate puts the fuel burned at about 3,497 US gallons, producing about 33,589 kilograms of CO2, roughly the same as driving a car 83,141 miles. The Gulfstream G500 has a range of 5,300 nautical miles, a top speed of Mach 0.925, a ceiling of 51,000 feet, and typically seats 10 passengers.

This was the 18th landing at Indianapolis by any of Eli Lilly's three Gulfstream G500s in the tracked window from October 23 to November 11, 2026. The last landing at Indianapolis before this flight was earlier on November 11, by N308EL. The home base for all three aircraft is Indianapolis International Airport, and usual destinations include Washington Dulles, Newark, London Heathrow, Frankfurt, Minneapolis-St. Paul, and Chicago O'Hare. Before this flight, N309EL had been on the ground for about 3 days after landing in Rome on November 8. Another tracked aircraft, a Cessna Citation Encore belonging to Menard Inc., landed at Indianapolis about 22 hours earlier.

Eli Lilly and Company is a pharmaceutical giant based in Indianapolis, best known for its GLP-1 drugs Mounjaro and Zepbound. The company reported first-quarter 2026 revenue of $19.8 billion, a 56 percent increase driven by its blockbuster drugs. A web search did not find a specific public event or meeting tied to Eli Lilly in Indianapolis on this date.

In the 30 days before this flight, Eli Lilly's three Gulfstream G500s flew 40 flights totaling 89.3 hours in the air. Those flights covered about 38,595 nautical miles and produced an estimated 325,863 kilograms of CO2. The fleet visited 28 airports in 6 countries. The longest leg in that period was Indianapolis to Perugia on November 8, covering 4,098 nautical miles.

The aircraft is a Gulfstream G500 with a Symmetry flight deck, scaled-down G650 technology. Indianapolis saw 17 landings, Dulles 2, and Chicago Midway 2. The last landing at Indianapolis before this flight was earlier on November 11 by N308EL, which had flown from San Diego in 3 hours 27 minutes.

The aircraft burned an estimated 380 US gallons of fuel per hour. Ciampino Airport has a longest runway of 7,226 feet at an elevation of 427 feet. Indianapolis International Airport has a longest runway of 11,200 feet at an elevation of 797 feet. The flight from Rome to Indianapolis used about 80 percent of the aircraft's range.