Raytheon Premier I Orders Top 250; Horizon Two Years Behind Schedule

While still waiting to obtain its type certification, Raytheon is pressing ahead with its Premier I marketing efforts, describing the new entry-level business jet as a 'hot seller'. The six-passenger Premier I is the first Raytheon Aircraft business jet built from an original design, and the company's first composite-fuselage business jet.

In August 2000 Raytheon announced the latest additions to the Premier I orderbook with signature of a deal for three by Aviation Leasing Group (ALG Transportation, Inc.) in London. ALG will place two of the Premier Is, and a recently ordered Beechjet 400A, into the Civil Aviation Training Centre (CATC) in Thailand, for training Thai Airways International's student pilots and those of other Pacific Rim carriers.

More than 250 Premier Is are now in the order book, with a backlog that stretches into 2005. Raytheon Aircraft expected to achieve FAA certification "by the end of the summer," and believes the announcement is now "imminent". The first customer deliveries will begin immediately thereafter. Snags in the flight test programme have delayed this process by nearly a year. Raytheon has upped its anticipated production rate from 48 to 60 aircraft per annum and expects this to be its maximum output. The Premier I has a price tag of $4.8 million.

Things have been running even less smoothly with the Hawker Horizon super midsize jet, which is now approximately two years late.

The Horizon is made with the same advanced composite technology used on the Premier I, but the much larger Horizon fuselage is made in three sections compared to the Premier I's two. Raytheon had hoped to be assembling the first aircraft in early 1999, but this slipped into the latter part of the year. The maiden flight, originally predicted for the end of 1999, will not now occur until next year.

Under current plans Raytheon expects to roll out the prototype Horizon by the end of 2000 and to fly it in the first quarter of 2001. Certification is planned for 2002. Deliveries should then begin immediately.

Raytheon holds over 150 orders and options for the Horizon, including 50 options announced by Executive Jets Inc/NetJets at the 1999 Paris Air Show. Previously Raytheon had announced plans to build 24 Horizons per year, but this annual total has now climbed to 36. The equipped price for a Horizon stands at $16.283 million, in 2000 dollars.