Daily Archives: Oct. 18, 2012

With Chinese deal off, Beechcraft has welcome new name, focus

Oct. 18, 201211:57 a.m.

The latest turn of events in Hawker Beechcraft’s bankruptcy raises new questions for workers and the community, but at least ends the worrying about the company’s future under Chinese ownership. Wichita should welcome the stand-alone company’s familiar new name, Beechcraft Corp., and narrowed focus on the products it makes most profitably – turboprop, piston, special mission and trainer/attack aircraft – and its high margin parts, maintenance, repairs and refurbishment businesses. The proposed $1.9 billion purchase by Superior Aircraft Beijing always seemed like a stretch, and left a question mark over the defense business. (At least the Wichita company gets to keep Superior’s $50 million deposit.) Now the concern shifts to what will become of the Hawker jet lines. “The go-forward business plan we have developed with our creditors ensures that we will emerge from this process in a strong operational and financial position, with an enhanced ability to compete well into the future,” Hawker Beechcraft CEO Steve Miller said in a Thursday statement. Now elected officials need to be engaged with Miller and other executives to ensure that Wichita and Kansas are as crucial to Beechcraft’s future as they’ve been to its past.

By Rhonda Holman | Filed under Aviation, Business | Comments Off

Romney having trouble getting away from Kobach

Oct. 18, 20126:00 a.m.

President Obama criticized Mitt Romney during Tuesday’s debate for supporting “self-deportation” of illegal immigrants, a policy pushed by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (in photo). Obama also tried to link Romney to Kobach and Arizona’s controversial anti-immigration law by noting that Romney’s “top adviser on immigration” wrote the law. Romney has tried to distance himself from Kobach since embracing him during the GOP primaries. But Kobach isn’t backing away. He told the Washington Times after the debate that “Obama is completely out of step with the American public on the immigration issue,” and he predicted that Obama’s statements in the debate about immigration “will further alienate independent voters who are concerned about the millions of Americans who have lost jobs to illegal aliens.”

By Phillip Brownlee | Filed under Immigration, Kansas government, Presidential race | Comments Off