Raytheon Relaunches Beechcraft/Hawker Brands

Beechcraft and Hawker will become household names again as their parent Raytheon Aircraft relaunches the brands.

"The centerpiece of our strategy is to bring back the Beechcraft and Hawker names," Raytheon chairman and CEO Jim Schuster told Show News at EBACE.

"The response has been absolutely positive. You wonder sometimes why it went the other way."

Schuster said Raytheon fully understands and supports the move. There will be no new Raytheon business aircraft-just Beechcraft and Hawkers.

Schuster said the company has already relaunched The Beechcrafter magazine, and dusted off a giant Beechcraft sign from a museum and rehung it at the plant in Wichita.

Employees have embraced the old names (in fact most never stopped using them), added Ed Dolanski, vp of customer support at Raytheon Aircraft. The result has been a resurgence of pride in the names, which has reinforced integrity, improved quality and sharpened craftsmanship, said Schuster. And that plays right into his core strategy for reversing Raytheon Aircraft's fortunes-rebuilding customer support.

Schuster, who took over at Raytheon less than year ago, began that process with a broad agenda to improve quality and processes in engineering and manufacturing, and carrying it through to meeting the customer's expectations for service and support.

"The problems we have today are no different to six months ago, but we've made tremendous progress," he said. "We have met our financial commitments to the parent company, the Premier I is being delivered and in service (more than 25 to date), and we're making great progress on the Hawker Horizon. It is really encouraging."

Raytheon Aircraft will lose money again this year, after operating losses of $772 million last year, but is on track to break even in 2003, he said.

Schuster noted Raytheon has not backed off at all from the Horizon. "The company has said continue to invest in it," he noted.

The response from customers to Schuster's changes has been very positive. "They say we're doing the right things.

"But we're not done. We will not be happy until we top all the surveys for customer service." he said.