The manufacturer remedied these problems over time through a series of service bulletins and mandated and optional modifications. Automatic lift-dump spoilers (control surfaces that provide aerodynamic braking) failed to deploy on landing, sending several airplanes off runway ends. Sensors malfunctioned, prompting rejected takeoffs and precautionary landings. The rigid composite fuselage tended to amplify cabin noise. Cabin ceiling panels, attached with Velcro, came loose in flight and smacked passengers on the head. While you expect low-serial-number aircraft to have a few teething problems, the Premier I had more than its share. Unfortunately, the ill will this created lingers in the minds of some airplane buyers to this day. The models languished in development, were sent to market before they were ready and took too long to fix after they were field-tested by unappreciative, paying customers. Raytheon introduced innovative and game-changing aircraft such as the Starship, Premier and Hawker 4000 with much fanfare only to become slaves to cash-flow aerobics.
Premier aircraft design shorts professional#
It brought more professional management and financial stability, but it also instilled a risk-averse culture, a rigid management style and a laser-like focus on the bottom line that took no prisoners. The Raytheon purchase did many good things for Beechcraft. Raytheon bought Beechcraft in 1980 and sold it in 2007.
The R stands for Raytheon, the B for Beechcraft. Some were cultural, others were physical.Īll Premiers have the FAA designation RB-390. The Premier I, to put it politely, had issues. That’s where some of the similarities end. On the outside, the I and IA look virtually the same and they have the same engines. The cabin is substantially wider and taller than anything else in this class. The Premier’s composite construction yields a fuselage with 15 percent more interior volume that is 20 percent lighter and up to three times stronger than comparable aluminum structures. The pilot and passenger, although injured, walked away in just about any other jet, the outcome would likely have been far worse. Several thousand people got to see just how strong when one crashed on landing at the Experimental Aircraft Association’s Oshkosh air show in 2010. The Premier’s composite fuselage is incredibly strong. Boeing is using this advanced technology to make the fuselage barrels on the new 787.
The fuselage is manufactured on a giant automated computer-controlled machine that dramatically cuts production time. The airplane features a rigid and lightweight rolled graphite, epoxy laminate and honeycomb fuselage mated to highly swept aluminum wings. (The company acquired its Beechjet and Hawker models, except the 4000, from other manufacturers.) Announced in 1995 at an introductory price of $4.5 million, the Premier I was delivered to customers from 2001 to 2005. The IA was itself a successor to the Premier I, the first business jet Raytheon designed from the wheels up. The IA sold relatively well for a long time and was supposed to be replaced last year by an updated model dubbed the “Hawker 200.” That was, until HBC ran off the financial rails, eventually filing for bankruptcy protection earlier this year. Compared with the Premier, the original Cessna Citation CJ looked like a lawn tractor and was slower to boot. In 2006, Hawker Beechcraft (HBC) introduced the Premier IA to near-universal acclaim: Here was a composite-fuselage light jet that could be flown single-pilot at speeds up to 450 knots with a near-standup cabin with room for six to seven passengers and a range of nearly 1,500 nautical miles, depending on load.