Raytheon Aircraft has launched development of a "light mid-sized" business jet as part of a strategy to revamp and expand its product line.
The new Hawker 450 will compete head on with the Bombardier Learjet 45 and Cessna Citation Excel in what chief executive Hansel Tookes describes as "the second fastest growing market after the super mid-size".
By the end of the show, the company had sold "over 100" aircraft, including 50 orders and 25 options from its Raytheon TravelAir fractional-ownership subsidiary.
Powered by twin Honeywell TFE731-40 turbofans, the Hawker 450 will exploit the composite fuselage technology pioneered in Raytheon's soon-to-be certificated Premier I light jet and used in the super mid-size Hawker Horizon now in development.
Tookes says the $7.8-9 million aircraft will have the largest cabin (1.8m/5.9ft high), longest range (over 3,700km/2,000nm) and highest speed (above Mach 0.8) in its class. Honeywell is a risk-sharing partner, supplying the engines and Primus Epic avionics, and Raytheon is looking for other participants, he says.
The Hawker 450 will not enter service until 2006, which Tookes says is "a do-able schedule based on experience". The Premier and Horizon programmes have slipped substantially from their original "aggressive" schedules.
The Hawker 450 fits between Raytheon's light Beechjet 400A and mid-size Hawker 800XP. Tooks says the 400A will remain in production as long as there is demand, while the 800XP will receive an avionics upgrade this year and a performance boost next year.
Tooks says the Hawker 450 is part of a strategy for a "complete family of composite fuselage aircraft" endorsed by Raytheon's board just before the show. "I want to have two new aircraft ongoing at all times," he says.
Raytheon chose to launch a new light mid-size jet instead of a stretched Premier II, which Tooks says remains "in the future" as a Beechjet 400A replacement, due to the segment's popularity.
Rival Cessna has sold almost 300 Excels and is raising production from 60 to 100 a year by 2002.
Source: Flight International
