Up until recently, the wings and fuselages for Hawker were manufactured by Airbus at their Broughton plant in Whales. Due to the bankruptcy of HBC - Airbus was forced to take a 95 million dollar write down for their losses due to HBC.
Airbus is getting ready to destroy the entire Hawker line, Hawker building, and anything Hawker - including the wooden jigs. Just wondering - there are a lot of Hawkers out there, anybody like Viking or Flying Colours interested in saving any of this??
Google Maps Broughton Plant, Flintshire, Whales (Chester Hawarden Airport)
After all it was a Canadian company co-responsible for destroying Hawker (Toronto's Onyx Corp) along with GS Partners (Goldman Sachs) who even though they blew thru 10 billion in tarp funds - together with Onyx drained HBC of every dime.
Brand new Hawker fuselages about to get scrapped with everything else!!!!
Out of curiousity, Beechcraft own a bunch of Premiers, Beechjets, Hawkers, Hawker 4000's yet nothing is listed for sale anywhere - so unless someone doesn't hurry up the line will be deceased.
HBC emerged out of bankruptcy back in Feb of this year under the name Beechcraft Corporation (HBC name was retired) in a deal with JP Morgan and Credit Suisse for financing. They are producing the King Air 350i, Hawker XP, AT-6 Fighters, Bonanza and Barons (no info on the 1900 so assuming no plans for a new version).
I have no info in regards to the airframes at the Airbus facilities.
I wouldn't be so quick to declare Hawker dead, signs of life in the company yet.
I'm not declaring them dead, I'm stating if anybody wants to be the sole source of Hawker stuff!!, now is the time, Airbus already has the permits to scrap the Hawker buildings, I'm hearing it is days away - after lossing 95 million 2012 - plus another 46 million in 2010 - their a little pissed and they are about to scrap the jigs.
This is from my friend Jeremy Cox for GlobeAir (St. Louis) the Hawker bizjet story from start until the Canadian take-over consortium.
Jermey
In 1958 the most successful designer and manufacturer of general aviation aircraft in Great Britain, Sir Geoffrey De Havilland - OBE/CBE (he was knighted in 1944 in reward for his services to the country) was struggling to bring his company back to profitability again after the tragic window design issues on his and the world's first jet airliner, the a DH 106 Comet had been fixed. The Mark IV Comet had just been returned to airline service (unfortunately too late) and even though he had officially retired in 1955 he continued to serve as the head of the company and he subsequently decided that it was time for his company to design a small business jet aircraft. His vision was of an aircraft that was sized between his extremely popular 1930's twin-engined-piston Gypsy Six powered DH 89 Dragon Rapide (also known as the Dominie within military service) and it's successor, the postwar twin-engined-piston Gypsy Queen powered DH 104 Dove. The Rapide seats eight passengers, four on either side of an aisle in a 'nearly' stand-up cabin, while the Dove seats eleven in a proper stand-up cabin. Sir Geoffrey, who was in his mid seventies by now, and his team, took the conceptual size of both the Rapides and Doves cabins and created the Jet Dragon, designated as the DH 125. The British post-war economy was booming in 1960; however the corporate treasury of DeHavilland had been depleted near to bankruptcy due to the Comet window design tragedies. Sir Geoffrey was grateful to be able to pass ownership of his company over to Hawker Siddeley Aviation. The DeHavilland name was kept until 1963.
The prototype DH125 Mark 1 first flew on August 13th, 1962 from Hatfield Aerodrome in Hertfordshire, about twenty miles north of central London. It was powered by two Armstrong Siddeley (later to be Bristol Siddeley, then Rolls Royce) Viper engines. These fine engines were a smaller derivative based upon the successful Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire turbojet that powered the Gloster Javelin and the Hawker Hunter of 1951. Eight Mark 1's were produced before the subsequent aircraft were fitted with up-rated Viper engines and designated Mark 1A (Viper 521) or Mark 1B (Viper 522.)
Shortly after the first flight of the DH 125 in 1962, Time Magazine wrote an article the same year that describes the DeHavilland aircraft as follows: "_the DH 125 was designed to operate on short runways and cruise with six passengers at 480 m.p.h., it is Britain's entry in the market for corporate jets. Price: $550,000_"
It is easy to confuse the 'A' and 'B' designations when they applied to the DH 125 and subsequent variants. The United Kingdom's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and our FAA, up until 1999, designated all of the aircraft that were approved and destined for the North American market as 'A' models (America); with the rest of the world designated as 'B' models (British.) The DH 125 Mark 1A was Type Certificate Approved by the FAA in the United States on September 23rd, 1964. The Mark 1A featured an unrestricted take-off and continuous engine thrust of 3,120 lbs that allowed 21,200 lbs MGTOW and accommodations for 8 passengers and 2 crew. The maximum rated altitude was 40,000 feet. The Mark 1B powered by the Viper 522 benefited by an additional 210 lbs of thrust for a 5 minute maximum continuous thrust of 3,330 lbs. Mmo (Maximum Mach Operating Speed) was also increased at altitude from 0.735 mach, to 0.75 mach. Nine months before the Mark 1B was approved by the FAA, Sir Geoffrey passed away after suffering a cerebral haermorrage at age 82.
The labour government of the then prime minister: James Callaghan, finished the work that had been started by his Labour colleague and former prime minister, Harold Wilson in the 1960's. Wilson had engineered the unification (and eventually nationalization) of the aviation industry. In April 1977 the forced merger of Hawker Siddeley with British Aircraft Corporation and Scottish Aviation was executed to create the government owned entity named British Aerospace (BAe.) If Sir Geoffrey had still been alive, he most likely would have fought this governmental merger plan with 'hair, blood, tooth and nail.'
The month following the forced nationalization of Hawker Siddeley into BAe, the engineers and executives celebrated the certification of their first Turbo-Fan powered version of the Jet Dragon; the HS125-700 Model fitted with two Garrett AiResearch TFE 731-3 engines. Prior to the introduction of the Model 700, the worldwide DH/HS 125 fleet amounted to over two hundred and fifty various Viper Turbo-Jet (now Rolls Royce) powered models, which included the Mark 1A; Mark B; Mark 2; Mark 3; Model 400 and Model 600 all for the civilian world, and the new Dominie model that was manufactured exclusively for the Military.
As a side note, the DH/HS 125 Dominie got its name from the military version of the DH 89 Rapide previously mentioned in this article. The Royal Air Force of Great Britain is the Dominie's primary customer, but it was, and in most cases, still is used by a multitude of military forces around the world. The Rolls Royce Viper 301 powered Dominie T1 has been in continuous service with the Royal Air Force (RAF) since 1965. According to the RAF, the Dominie today is used to train weapon systems officers and operators, air engineers and air loadmasters. With up to five students on board in the back, plus two crew up-front, a mixture of two-to-three hour sorties are flown, including both low and high-level flying, maritime operations, radar handling and target training.
Both the HS 125-600 and the HS/BAe 125-700 has the same fuel capacity of 1,419 U.S. Gallons, but the replacement of the Vipers with the Garrett Fans virtually doubled the range of the latter version; from approximately 1,100 NM to an impressive 2,100 NM. Static thrust of both the Viper and the Garrett were almost identical, with the Fan delivering 25 lbs additional thrust over the Turbo-Jet, in a 'stage-three' noise compliant package. Over the following decade, 100 various Viper powered aircraft were retrofitted with the Garrett Fan under after-market Supplemental Type Certificates (STCs) developed by AiResearch.
After Hawker Siddeley (HS) had completed its purchase of the De Havilland Aircraft Company, and also after the eight original DH 125 prototypes had been completed at the DH facility in Hatfield, HS moved all production of the 125 series 195 miles northwest to the DH facility that used to build the famous twine-engine DH 98 Mosquito attack/bomber, in the city of Chester, in Cheshire close to the border of Wales. It is here that production has remained ever since. It has even withstood the purchase of BAe's Business Jet Division by the North American behemoth, the Raytheon Company in 1993. Raytheon Aircraft Company (Beechcraft) moved completion and delivery of the BAe 125, which was now being produced as the model 800. Raytheon renamed the aircraft simply as 'Hawker.' After much upheaval of personnel Raytheon created an enclave of English men and women within the metropolitan areas of both Wichita and Little-Rock (BAe had built a delivery and sales centre for its U.S.A. Jetstream, 146 and ATP transport aircraft division in Little Rock, Arkansas prior to the Raytheon purchase; now a service and completion centre for the Hawker.) In 1996 some sub assembly manufacturing and all final assembly operations were moved to Wichita. Eight years prior to the purchase of the Hawker program in 1993, Raytheon Aircraft, nee Beechcraft, had started their jet aircraft product division in 1985 after purchasing the Diamond aircraft program from Mitsubishi in Japan and then renaming it the Beechjet. It seemed now that Raytheon were the new rulers of business and general aviation manufacture, as their product line encompassed the entire gamut of general aviation starting with their single-engine piston powered Beechcraft Bonanza, to the twin-engine piston powered Baron, the twin-engined PT6A turbo-prop powered King Air series of aircraft, the futuristic Starship, the Beechjet, the all-plastic Premier and the Hawker series. Additionally other divisions were building the Beech 1800/1900 airliners, and the license built Swiss military trainer from Pilatus that is called the Mark 2 T-6 Texan.
After growing this aircraft manufacturing company into what it is today, Raytheon sold it off to an investment consortium in 2007, which promptly renamed the entire operation 'Hawker Beechcraft' by combining two very illustrious and historic names.
Geoffrey DeHavilland's Jet Dragon has gradually evolved over the last 46 years starting from the Mark 1A, through the various models previously mentioned above, on to the model 1000, model 800XP, and now in its latest 2008 manifestation: the model 850XP, 900XP and the soon to fly, the model 750. Today a total of 1,657 Jet Dragon derivatives have been built and delivered around the world, since 1962; 1,457 of which are still operating. Everyone I believe can only take their hat off and doff it in respect to this impressive production history. Do you agree?
Interesting story. Rumor has it that when they designed the interior they went to a men's club in London and measured the average width of the member's ass and designed a seat that fit that width. We had the first 1A converted to Garrett power, SN 75. It also had single point refueling, the panel was under the right wing. Woodward Stores owned it originally, it was Woodward that had it retrofitted if I remember correctly.
I don't see this as much of a tragedy. The line of Hawker business jets has a great legacy but they aren't all that competitive any more. That airframe has gone about as far as it can.
Personally, not one of my favourite airplanes to work on and in the air they are a bit of a flying speed bump.
Well they may not be the fastest or the prettiest or the most modern, but I've always had a soft spot in my heart for the Hawker lineage. Not to mention they are built tough! How many business jets have returned after a missile hit !
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Incident occurred back in August 1988 - Botswana Govt Hawker tail number OK-1 - was carrying the President and staff of Rwanda to Angola - while over Angolan airspace was attacked by a Angolan Mig 23 who fired a AA-8 Aphid missile hitting the starboard engine, knocking it off - the Mig fired a second missile - it hit the falling engine.
Pilot was incapacitated by a flight attendant who flew into him when the missle hit!, the co-pilot made a successful emergency landing on a bush strip at Cutio Bie, Angola. At the time of the incident the Hawker 800B had only 80 hours on it, and was being flown by a Hawker (Hawarden based) pilot and a Angolan co-pilot.
Aircraft was dismantled, trucked off, and flown back to Hawarden in a An-124 for a years worth of repairs, then sold to a Brazilian Air Taxi firm, currently operating out of Atlanta as N812GJ.
Sidenote; Botswana Govt allowed Rwandan President Habyarimana to use the Hawker, the attempt shootdown was unconfirmed as a Angolan escort aircraft.
Unfortunately for Habyarimana - though he survived being hit by a missile in a Hawker, he wasn't so lucky when his Falcon 50 was hit by a missile on approach into Kigali Airport, Rwanda in 1994 killing him and all onboard. We all know the mayhem that followed in Rwanda.
Here's how the people with real money and power roll. After draining billions of dollars and collapsing a corporation they do this.
bizjets101 wrote:
Airbus is getting ready to destroy the entire Hawker line, Hawker building, and anything Hawker - including the wooden jigs.
If someone gets that stuff they might make money and worse yet distract customers from buying they jets we're going to have build way cheaper somewhere else.
Make any excuse you want for it. They could sell it for a profit of however much they sold it for. Instead they pay someone to commit vandalism on it.
Delays..delays...delays! Sadly, it was the Hawker 4000 program that sealed their fate. Major certification issues arose with this program and Bombardier took advantage of this with their 300. Hawker Beech has never really excelled at the clean sheet aircraft concept. Premier, Starship and 4000 could never grab a good market share. That said, they did a great job "changing aircraft" They took the wing from the Hawker 1000 and put it on the 800 along with upgraded tech giving them the 800XP - 850XP - 900XP. That my friends is a great aircraft. Unfortunately, with advances in tech it has now become a very dated aircraft. Lets hope the "new" Beechcraft can adapt and not solely rely on their King Air program to carry them into the very crowded future.
HF
An update on your olde Hawker 125 CF-MDB - currently it is based MMHO Hermosillo, Mexico and operated by Gruppo Arriola Mayer - still has the same colours - though updated.
It was delivered new in 1966 as N666M to Wheelabrator Corp, then to B.D. Brynelsen in 1969 as CF-MDB based YVR, to Pacific Leasing 1970, then Woodward Stores, Futura Airlines 1976, Quebec North Shore & Labrador Railway YUL.
It left Canada in 1987 - several USA owners, Domincan Rebublic, back to USA - then Mexico 2007.
photo Mike Oday, Skyport YYZ Viper engines . . . August 1969
photo Dave Mangham, Edmonton CYXD 731 engines . . . July 1976
photo James Ronayne Las Vegas KLAS August 2010 new paint, same colours!
Thanks for that bizjets. When we bought it from Nelson Skalbania (Futura) it was painted white with orange and brown trim. Before we sold it in 1987 we had it repainted white with red and gold trim, really attractive, and refurbed the interior. We sold it to a HMO in Atlanta. Where we flew it almost exclusively in North America, they took it all over the place.
August 28 2006 NetJets Hawker 800A Captain Annette Saunders
According to interviews conducted by the NTSB investigator-in-charge (IIC), the flight crew indicated that they were cleared by air traffic control from 16,000 feet to 11,000 feet. The captain was the flying pilot and the first officer was working the radios. Oakland Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) transferred the flight to Reno approach control just prior to the collision. The first officer tuned in the Reno approach control radio frequency and looked out the right cockpit window. He then heard the captain shout and the audio tone for the autopilot, and noted that the captain had pushed the control yoke down and to the right. As he was turning his head to see what was going on, he observed the captain's side of the instrument panel "explode."
Great!, now Cessna is cutting back production, cutting back staff - halting (pause) in Citation Mustang line, and blaming the declining prices of Hawkers and uncertain future tax changes on corporate jets.
photo ejohannesson
