Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC
Raytheon has redesigned the flight controls of the Premier I business jet to prevent an engine rotor burst severing the links to the elevator and rudder.
The redesign will delay certification by three months, to the end of June, says Raytheon Aircraft president Art Wegner. "The aircraft flies well, and is meeting its numbers, but we've had to redesign the control system."
Wegner says cable runs to the rudder and elevator on the T-tail Premier have been redesigned to minimise the possibility that a rotor burst in one of the aft-fuselage-mounted Williams-Rolls FJ44-2s could sever the links. "The redesigned parts are being manufactured," he says.
News of the delay came as Raytheon acknowledged it had missed its delivery forecast for last year by 19 aircraft, primarily because of production delays. The company shipped 422 aircraft last year, but reports only 402 deliveries under revised accounting rules. This is up slightly from 395 in 1998.
The delays affected six Beech King Airs, three Beechjet 400As and a Hawker 800XP, as well as four Beech 1900D regional airliners and five piston singles. All will be delivered in the first half of this year, Raytheon says.
The backlog increased substantially in 1999, however, ending the year at $4.3 billion, up from $2.5 billion a year before.
Source: Flight International
