Raytheon Aircraft resumed the delayed flight testing of its renamed Hawker Horizon, the Hawker 4000, last week. The company expects to complete the 150 flying hours required to finalise certification by the end of March. The US Federal Aviation Administration instructed Raytheon to halt function and reliability testing – the final step before certification – last December to install additional lightning protection. Brad Hatt, Hawker president and general manager, says: “This is good news for us. It gives the aircraft real credibility”. Raytheon does not expect the deal to affect the first deliveries scheduled for this year.The company says it had planned to add the lightning protection after certification to the test aircraft, RC5, which it had delivered to its first customer following provisional certification in December 2004. Raytheon leased back RC5 to complete certification and the aircraft will go back to its Wichita-based owner immediately after final certification. Raytheon intends to have a demonstrator aircraft available by April or May.
The company plans to deliver 10 Hawker 4000s this year, ramping up to 16 in 2007 and 24 in 2008, before stabilising at 30 a year from 2009. One of the first fleet operators will be fractional ownership manager NetJets, which last December confirmed an order for 50 of the super mid-size jets to be delivered between 2007 and 2013 in a $1 billion deal, including a 10-year guaranteed maintenance programme.
The Hawker 4000 will be priced at $19 million and compete with Bombardier’s Challenger 300 and the Gulfstream 200 in the same price range.
Source: Flight Daily News
