Category Archives: Hawker Beechcraft

Salina looking beyond Hawker Beechcraft’s closing

Nov. 10, 20092:49 p.m.

The news out of Hawker Beechcraft Monday was a blow to the Salina community. The company has done business in Salina since 1966.

Salina officials will begin marketing the facilities.

The Salina Airport Authority has received multiple calls from potential tenants asking about buildings at the Airport Industrial Center, officials said. They offered to work with them on putting up new buildings, but many prefer “move-in ready” buildings that up to now haven’t been available.

The buildings and hangars now leased by Hawker Beechcraft will be ideal for businesses that need access to the airport’s 12,300 foot-long runway, said Salina Airport Authority’s Tim Rogers.

The facilities would be ideal for military operations, unmanned aerial systems firms, aircraft modification shops, avionics installation, completion centers and aircraft maintenance, repair and overall businesses, he said.

Hawker Beechcraft’s lease expires Feb. 28, 2012. The Salina Airport Authority will work with Hawker Beechcraft as it reduces and closes down its operations between now and then.

“This is not the first, nor the worst closure Salina has faced,” Airport Authority officials said. When the Schilling Air Force Base closed, Salina turned the site into the Salina Municipal Airport, the Salina Airport Industrial Center and the Salina Aviation Service Center.

By Molly McMillin | Filed under Hawker Beechcraft | Comments (4)

Hawker Beechcraft to close Salina plant; timeline not determined

Nov. 9, 200910:32 a.m.

Hawker Beechcraft will close its Salina plant and move the work, the company told employees and the Machinists union today.

“We were informed today that the decision has been made to close the Salina facility,” Machinists union District 70 president Steve Rooney said this morning. “The union will be in discussions with the company to see if there’s things we can do to help save and preserve jobs in Kansas.”

A timeline has not been established for the closure.

The union wants to meet with the company to determine the possibility of moving a significant number of the jobs to Wichita, Rooney said.

The company issued a statement saying that formal conversations with the Machinists will continue. It has asked the union to “actively partner in making a viable business case and exploring opportunities for relocating jobs to Wichita,” the statement said.  The union’s leadership has committed to responding in the next few  weeks.

Hawker Beechcraft employs about 240 people in Salina, down from about 500 a year ago. The plant builds wings, spar assemblies and other subassemblies.

Hawker Beechcraft CEO Bill Boisture said in an interview last month that the company likely would close the plant and move the work to Wichita.

The move is a blow to the Salina community, where Hawker Beechcraft is one of the city’s largest employers. It’s had operations in Salina since 1966.

“It’s a very significant loss to the community — the jobs and the payroll,” said Salina Airport Authority executive director Tim Rogers in a news conference in Salina this afternoon.

Hawker Beechcraft leases 490,000 square feet of space in 13 buildings and pays $424,200 a year in rent. Its lease expires Feb. 28, 2012.

Local officials say they will work hard to market the buildings to bring in other tenants and jobs to the community.

By Molly McMillin | Filed under Hawker Beechcraft | Comments (14)

Hawker Beechcraft makes airbags, enhanced vision systems available

Nov. 6, 200910:11 a.m.

Airbags aren’t just for autos anymore. Hawker Beechcraft is making seatbelt airbags for the pilot and co-pilot seats on its Baron and Bonanza aircraft available. The company also introduced with enhanced vision systems for the two models this week.

The airbags are integrated into the lap belt portion of the seatbelt. They inflate in less than 90 milliseconds, the company says. And unlike automotive airbags, they safely deploy up and away from the occupant, “making it a safe restraint for passengers of all ages,” the company says. Hawker Beechcraft’s parts and distribution organization has begun taking orders for the bags.

The enhanced vision systems, the EVS-100 and EVS-600, commonly known as infrared or thermal imaging cameras, help penetrate haze, fog, smoke and precipitation. . They help pilots see unlit obstacles during taxi and takeoff and help them avoid clouds, fly between layers and note detailed ground features out of the night landscape in flight.

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Hawker Beechcraft ready for battle

Oct. 19, 20099:02 a.m.

ORLANDO — Hawker Beechcraft executives and personnel showed up at the first press conference of the day at the world’s largest business jet show dressed in military flight suits.

The aviation industry is in a “battle situation. And it could be a long conflict,” the company’s CEO Bill Boisture said.

“We’re on a mission,” Boisture said. “Our mission is to prevail against unprecedented market forces; our mission today is to counter attack.”

Boisture doesn’t expect the market to rebound until 2012 or 2013.

But the company’s optimism and toughness is “best expressed by saying, ‘We are surrounded and tackling on all fronts…. We have plenty of ammo.”

That ammunition includes its skilled work force, business aviation product lines, its global support and its military trainer business, officials said.

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Hawker Beechcraft: NBAA will be telling

Oct. 19, 20098:53 a.m.

ORLANDO — Interest in new aircraft is picking up and — after a year of cancellations and deferrals — the order book is starting to stabilize, three Hawker Beechcraft executives said this morning.

I caught up with the HBC execs after the company’s press conference this morning at the Orange County Convention Center. HBC kicked off a day of press briefings.

They said this NBAA convention will be telling.

August and September were the best months of the year, said Brad Hatt, head of commercial aircraft.

“We can concentrate on selling rather than preserving,” said Brad Stancil, the company’s vice president of sales for the Western Hemisphere.

“Large Fortune 100 companies came back into the market in the last 60 days,” Hatt said.

 ”They have been absent up until now,” Stancil added.

The international market is much stronger than the domestic one, with 70 percent to 80 percent of sales coming from outside the U.S.

Several international customers are making the trip to Orlando for this week’s show, said Sean McGeough, vice president of sales for the Eastern Hemisphere said.

Whether that interest will turn into sales is too soon to say, they said.

By Molly McMillin | Filed under Hawker Beechcraft, aircraft manufacturers, aviation industry | Comments (0)

Hawker Beechcraft expands Indianapolis facility

Aug. 26, 200910:53 a.m.

Hawker Beechcraft Services recently completed a large expansion at the Indianapolis International Airport.

The new executive terminal and 40,000 square-foot hangar is three times the company’s previous space. The company has added technical jobs and plans to hire about 50 people over the next 18 months, it said.

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Hawker Beechcraft realigns executives; CEO to take a pay cut

Aug. 18, 200910:01 a.m.

WICHITA – Hawker Beechcraft has made a number of organizational changes, including the departure of three high-level executives and the realignment of other executives.

In addition, Hawker Beechcraft chairman and CEO Bill Boisture is taking a 10 percent salary cut.

The changes come a week after Hawker Beechcraft told employees that another round of layoffs are coming. The company has not said how many jobs will be cut, but Boisture told analysts last week that it would be “significant.”

In a memo to employees, Boisture said George Nguyen, senior vice president of operations; Gail Lehman, vice president, general counsel and secretary, and Charles Mayer, vice president of marketing, have resigned.

Chief financial officer Sid Anderson will assume the extra responsibility of the company’s legal department.

Bill Brown, president of customer service and support, is now responsible for the company’s manufacturing and assembly operations in Wichita, Little Rock, Salina and in Mexico.

Shawn Vick recently joined the company as an executive vice president, heading the sales and marketing efforts.

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FAA orders four Beechcraft King Air C90s

July 28, 200911:20 a.m.

The Federal Aviation Administration has placed an order with Hawker Beechcraft for four King Air C90GTi turboprops to support its Flight Standards Flight Program.

king-air1The contract includes an option for two addition planes. Deliveries will take place over the next two years, the company said.

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Premier IA sets speed record from Chester, U.K. to Geneva

May 12, 200910:46 a.m.

Hawker Beechcraft’s Premier IA set a speed record from Chester, U.K. to Geneva Switzerland, making the 527-mile trip in one hour, 13 minutes and 30 seconds.

Astronaut Robert “Hoot” Gibson was at the controls with the aircraft’s owner Robert Kay alongside. Hawker Beechcraft pilot Aaron Comber was also on board.

Hawker Beechcraft submitted the statistics to the National Aeronautic Association, the national authority for overseeing and certifying aviation records.

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PGA Champion Sergio Garcia takes delivery of Hawker 4000

May 12, 200910:39 a.m.

Sergio Garcia, a seven-time PGA champion, is taking ceremonial delivery of a Hawker 4000 mid-sized jet today at the European Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition in Geneva, Switzerland.

Garcia currently owns a Hawker 850XP.   He turned professional in 1999 and plays on the U.S. PGA Tour and European tour.

“My schedule takes me to four continents and routinely back and forth from Europe to the United States,” Garcia said in a statement. “Since purchasing my Hawker 850XP three years ago, I have not missed one of my tournaments or mission requirements.”

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