May 19, 2008 By David Collogan
 
Hawker Beechcraft Corp. officials expect to receive final FAA type certification for the long-delayed Hawker 4000 business jet very soon, and are ready to begin delivering the initial aircraft as soon as that FAA approval is received.

Jim Schuster, HBC's chairman and CEO, said the company has orders for 128 of the new composite-fuselage aircraft, of which 82 are destined for fractional aircraft operator NetJets. Serial Number 31 is at the beginning of the production line and a handful of aircraft are ready or nearly ready for customer delivery. The company expects to be at a production rate of three aircraft per month by the end of this year.

Because of the long delays in the program, "Clearly... we're not going to rush the deliveries" to customers until the aircraft are prepared to go into service without any problems, Schuster said. Hawker recently took a charge of $18.4 million related to rework of early production units of the Hawker 4000. In response to a question from a financial analyst, HBC officials confirmed the first 14 aircraft delivered will result in negative income to the company because of the delays and rework.

"We really expect the orderbook to grow," Schuster said, once the initial aircraft get into service and sales executives can begin providing firm delivery dates for customers. "The airplane is going to sell itself," he said. "I would be astonished if the order rate doesn't pick up dramatically," he said.

Click here to view this article in full.