Receives Final TC AND Production Certs

Can we get an "amen"? Hawker Beechcraft announced Thursday its flagship Hawker 4000 super-midsize business jet received final FAA Type Certification and Production Certification recently, allowing the company to begin delivering the composite-bodied bizjet to customers this month.

"This is a historic step forward for Hawker Beechcraft, as our hard work and dedication on the Hawker 4000 program has resulted in the most luxurious, most innovative and most advanced super-midsize business jet in the world," said Jim Schuster, HBC chairman and CEO. "We’ve put a tremendous amount of effort into the Hawker 4000 and are eager to fulfill our substantial backlog of worldwide customer orders."

The customers are eager to see their jets, too. This is actually the second time ANN has reported on the 4000 receiving its TC; the first came in 2006, when the program -- and the company -- were still under the auspices of Raytheon. That followed what had already been a 10-year development program on the admittedly innovative aircraft.

That TC wasn't the final word, though... as the FAA called for more tests, and eventually extensive re-working of the initial batch of production planes. Last month, HBC recorded an operating loss of $1.5 million for the quarter, in part due to an $18.4 million charge stemming from changes made to those early production 4000s to conform with the final type design.

Company officials admit that due to those added charges, the first 13-14 aircraft off the assembly line will be loss-leaders... or, at best, will break even. "The learning curve is fairly dramatic on that aircraft," admitted Hawker CFO Jim Sanders.

In happier news, at last month's EBACE show in Geneva Hawker Beechcraft received a $330 million order from BJETS of India for 10 Hawker 4000s, with options for an additional five. To date, HBC has orders for 128 Hawker 4000s, according to a report by the Wichita Eagle, and aims for a build-rate of about three per month by the end of the year.

"This airplane is going to sell itself," Schuster told the paper.

FMI: www.hawkerbeechcraft.com