AOPA Pilot Blog: Reporting Points

Beechcraft Corporation will sell off the jets the company once made as the former Hawker Beechcraft by mid-year. Dow Jones Business News had a report on the possible sale last month. The last time the jets were almost sold, the interested parties, according to the Dow report, were: Textron (parent company of Cessna), Mahindra and Mahindra of India, Embraer of Brazil, New United of China, and Carlyle Group, an investment company. There are new parties interested, the Dow report indicates.

The savvy jet industry publication, Corporate Jet Investor, has an article detailing what might happen next in the stage of the Hawker Beechcraft bankruptcy–soon to emerge as just Beechcraft Corporation. Here is a list by Corporate Jet Investor of companies that are, should be, or have been interested in the company in the past.

Mahindra & Mahindra
India’s largest auto maker supplies components to Boeing and Gulfstream.

Nextant/Directional Capital
Nextant, which already offers the Hawker 400XP aircraft, might want to offer modifications for other models.

AVIC
China Aviation Industry Corporation (AVIC) has joint ventures with both Embraer and Cessna and owns Cirrus Aircraft.The article states the company could still be interested in Hawker. Other Chinese firms might be interested, Corporate Jet Investor said.  Xi’an Aircraft International acquired Austrian composite parts maker FACC in 2009. Hunan Boyun that makes carbon-fiber auto and aircraft parts could possibly be interested in Hawker’s carbon-fiber jet.

BAE Systems
BAE Systems sold Hawker to Raytheon in 1993. It had been hoping to merge with EADS, which owns Airbus, but the deal fell through for political reasons, the magazine said. “Hawker could give it a commercial aircraft business of its own,” the magazine article said.