Raytheon Aircraft Company
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| Private | |
| Industry | Aerospace |
| Fate | Succeeded by Beechcraft Corporation upon emerging from bankruptcy on 19 February 2013 |
| Founded | 2006 |
| Defunct | 19 February 2013 |
| Headquarters | Wichita, Kansas, United States |
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Key people
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Steve Miller CEO |
| Products | General aviation aircraft Business jets |
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Number of employees
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8000 worldwide, 6300 US headquarters (2010) |
| Parent | Goldman Sachs and Onex Corporation |
| Website | www.hawkerbeechcraft.com |
Hawker Beechcraft Corporation (HBC) was an American aerospace manufacturing company that built the Beechcraft and Hawker business jet lines of aircraft between 2006 and 2013. The company headquarters was in Wichita, Kansas, United States, with maintenance and manufacturing locations worldwide. The history of Hawker Beechcraft originated in 1994 when Raytheon merged its Beech Aircraft Corporation and Raytheon Corporate Jets units.
In 2006, Raytheon sold the company to a consortium of Goldman Sachs and Onex Corporation. This deal left the company with a heavy burden of debt which it struggled to support from the economic crisis of 2008 onwards. In April 2012 it defaulted on interest payments and was in breach of banking covenants; this caused widespread speculation that it would enter bankruptcy.
On 3 May 2012, the company entered bankruptcy, filing voluntary petitions under Chapter 11, Title 11, United States Code in US Bankruptcy Court. The bankruptcy resulted in the company accepting an offer to be purchased by Superior Aviation Beijing. By 18 October 2012 the negotiations for the sale had failed and the company decided to cease jet production and exited bankruptcy on its own on 19 February 2013, under a new name, Beechcraft Corporation.
On 8 February 1980, Beech Aircraft Corporation became a subsidiary of Raytheon. In August 1993, Raytheon Company acquired British Aerospace Corporate Jets (producers of the midsized British Aerospace BAe 125 line) from British Aerospace and renamed the company Raytheon Corporate Jets. In mid-September 1994, Beech Aircraft Corporation and Raytheon Corporate Jets were merged to form Raytheon Aircraft. Raytheon decided to use the Hawker name to show the lineage of the series from Hawker Siddeley and Hawker Aircraft.
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