Hawker Beechcraft Corporation

Hawker Beechcraft Corporation

The Hawker Beechcraft Corporation Failure

An aerospace manufacturing company that built both the Beechcraft and the Hawker business jet lines that lasted for about seven years (2006-2013), Hawker Beechcraft Corporation, had originated in the mid-1990 when Raytheon fused the two corporations, the Beechcraft Aircraft Corporation and the Raytheon Corporate Jets Units for private jet charter.

The Beech Aircraft Corporation became Raytheon’s subsidiary way back 1980’s. That was on February 8, 1980, specifically. 13 years after, the company was renamed as Raytheon Corporate Jets as the Raytheon Company acquired the British Aerospace Corporate Jets from the British Aerospace. The British Aerospace Corporate Jets was the one who produced the mid-sized British Aerospace BAe 125 line, an aircraft for private jet charter.

In 1994 of September, the two jet lines were merged to form the Raytheon Aircraft where they use the name, Hawker. This isto relatively continue the series of the aircraft produced by the Hawker Siddeley and the Hawker Aircraft, both a British aerospace manufacturing company.

In 2002, the Raytheon Company announced that they will be producing the Hawker and Beechcraft brands again in the market.

In 2006 of July, they announced that their aircraft manufacturing business is open for sale, and the bidders were the following: The Carlyle Group, The Cerberus Capital Management, and The Onex Corporation.

In the same year, the Raytheon Company began an expansion for the Hawker 4000. The facility expansion occurred in the state of Arkansas. This expansion was worth $16.3 million that includes the Hangar Bay (54,000-square-foot) and the existing building extensions for greater space for storage and upholstery.

In March 2007, a new company headed by the Onex Partners and GS Capital Partners was formed after they have made the US$3.3B final purchase of the Raytheon Aircraft Company. The company has been named as Hawker Beechcraft Inc. and has operated under the Hawker Beechcraft Corporation.

In just a year, the Hawker Beechcraft Inc. has vastly doubled their efforts on expansion overseas. Of course, they have shown a great fruit over their efforts, and that was when they have officially opened a new manufacturing site for their aerospace facility in Chihuahua, Mexico last October 25, 2007.

Three years after, they have been chosen to be the authorized service center in the Southeast Asia for the first Hawker 4000 of the Hawker Pacific Singapore. The actual date was March 26, 2010.

The Hawker Beechcraft Corporation has undergone through a lot of challenges, and one of these was about the decreased workforce or number of employees that resulted in the decrease of the number of aircraft deliveries. The situation has even resulted in the cancellation of orders that was worth US$366M.

When this happened, they added and increased the number of employees to catch up with the deliveries. But then, another problem arose, there was a poor market for business aircraft.

Last May 2012, the company announced bankruptcy. They filed voluntary petitions under the United States’ Code, Chapter 11, Title 11 in the United States Bankruptcy Court. After the filing of bankruptcy, they received an offer from the Superior Aviation Beijing. The negotiations did not end well, so, the company has decided to bring the jet production to an end.