EBACE Show News - May 20, 2008 - (Page 30) NEW AIRCRAFT EBACE 2008 Hawker Beechcraft Unveils Premier II “The Premier 1A is a Ferrari; the Premier II is a Ferrari on steroids.” That’s what Hawker Beechcraft’s president of commercial sales Brad Hatt says of the new model unveiled here at EBACE (Booth 7462). New, more powerful, 3,000-pounds-thrust, FADECcontrolled Williams FJ44-3AP engines and winglets boost both time to climb and range. A fast—and direct—climb to a 4,000 ft higher ceiling of 45,000 ft and a higher cruise speed of Mach .72 give the Premier II a 1,500 nmi range with a single pilot and four passengers, up from the Premier IA’s 1,150 nmi with a comparable payload. Winglets grace the new Premier II, which has Williams FJ44-3AP engines. A 1,300 lb increase in Apart from technical problems such as antito-head with the Cessna Citation MGTOW to 12,800 lbs allows CJ2+, offering virtually the same skid brakes and cabin noise, the real deficiency another 900 lbs of payload with range but with a higher speed and was range, he explained. The more powerful full fuel. engines allow greater range from shorter runmidsized cabin. The first orders for the new With the Premier II, Hawker ways and bring better hot and high performance. model will be announced here. For example, the Premier II offers a 525 nmi Beechcraft took the opportunity The price for the first deliveries to incorporate all the shortcom- improvement over the Premier 1A when flying in 2010 will be $7,365,000. ings of the earlier model that were out of Samedan, Switzerland, which has an ele“Some customers will be final- Hawker Beechcraft’s Brad Hatt izing their paperwork here at the show,” Hatt addressed gradually over the delivery of some vation of 5,600 ft. The Premier II retains the Rockwell Collins 100 Premier Is and 130 Premier 1As to date. “It told Show News. Pro Line 21 avionics of the 1A but adds an elecHatt noted the Premier II will compete head- is now in a pretty mature state,” said Hatt. tronic ESIS emergency standby instrument from L-3 Avionics that gives the pilot important flight Hawker 4000 Certificate Expected Next Month The long, long struggle to get the Hawker 4000 out the door appears to be almost over, according to Brad Hatt, president of commercial sales for Hawker Beechcraft. “We hope to have the amended type certificate by the first of June, and that will allow us to start deliveries,” he said. The airplane is now seven years late, having been ensnared in initial technical problems that trapped it in an FAA Catch 22 of no longer complying with certification standards that had changed from those it originally met. Hawker Beechcraft has about 20 aircraft either completed or on the production line (the first customer airplane is serial No. 7), and to date it has been able to deliver none of them. “It’s been a long time coming and it has been a frustrating program, but the good news is we have a great airplane,” Hatt said. “We have a full order book (sold out until the first quarter of 2010), and customers are dying to get their airplanes. “Believe me, there will be no one happier on the east side of Wichita when we start delivering those airplanes.” “We will have two announcements on new products later in the year. I don’t know if we will do it at Farnborough, but by sure by NBAA.” —Brad Hatt, president of commercial sales, Hawker Beechcraft. The good news is we have a great airplane,’ Brad Hatt says of the Hawker 4000. cues, including attitude, altitude, airspeed, heading and navigation on one easy-to-read, active-matrix LCD. A Premier II cabin mockup is on show here at EBACE. Asked why Hawker Beechcraft hadn’t improved the Premier earlier, Hatt replied: “Last year was probably one of our busiest ever. We introduced the Hawker 750 and 900, the King Air 200GT with new engines and the King Air C90GTI; we put Garmin 1000 avionics in the Bonanza and Baron, and then we turned to the Premier. “We’ve been on a pretty aggressive campaign of modernizing all our products.” —John Morris 30 May 20, 2008 www.aviationweek.com/shownews http://www.aviationweek.com/shownews
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