Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC
RAYTHEON AIRCRAFT'S new light business-jet, internally designated the PD 374, will have an all-composite fuselage and be powered by uprated Williams Rolls-Royce FJ44 turbofans. Rockwell-Collins will supply the integrated avionics, including flat-panel displays.
The PD 374 is intended as a direct competitor to Cessna's CitationJet. Design work has been under way for 18 months, and the programme launch, to be announced at the National Business Aircraft Association convention in Las Vegas in September, was approved by the Raytheon board in February/March. The company declines to comment.
Raytheon's goals are to reduce acquisition, operating and maintenance costs relative to the CitationJet. The six-seat PD 374 will cost less than the $3.1 million Citationjet, but will have a larger cabin.
The aircraft will have a filament-wound composite fuselage, technology proven during development of the Beech Starship. The fuselage will be produced in one piece, reducing weight and cost. The swept wing, similar to that of the Beechjet, will be a conventional metal structure.
The 10kN (2,300lb)-thrust FJ44-2 selected has a higher bypass-ratio than that of the 8.5kN FJ44-1A used in the CitationJet and is, therefore, more fuel-efficient. Williams International refuses to confirm the link with Raytheon, but says that the FJ44-2 has a larger fan than the FJ44-1A and two additional intermediate-compressor stages.
Raytheon will introduce control-by-light technology on the PD 374, with fibre-optic signalling replacing conventional control runs between the cockpit and the engines, to reduce weight and maintenance.
The PD 374 will not be branded a Beech or a Hawker, and is Raytheon's first all-new aircraft since the Starship in 1986, and the first business jet to be designed by the company.
The all-composite, canard-pusher Starship was a technical success, but a marketing disaster, and production was halted after some 50 aircraft, around 15 of which remain unsold. Recently, Raytheon has been successful in selling the Starship against the CitationJet, with five sold this year, but there are no plans to put the aircraft back into production.
The company intends to offer PD 374 buyers either a Beech King Air or a Beechjet as an interim.
Cessna has delivered 104 CitationJets, 34 in 1993, 49 in 1995 and 21 this year. Swearingen is to produce its SJ30 light business-jet, in a venture with Taiwan Aerospace and Taiwanese investors.
Source: Flight International
