Plane Conversations

This past week I had the privilege of taking a tour of the Hawker Beechcraft factory and corporate headquarters in Wichita Kansas.

The tour started at our home base in Tennessee with a flight to Wichita on a new Hawker 4000. The aircraft is impressive and I will post soon with video and more information on this new generation, state of the art, mid size business jet.

Our company has operated Beechcraft King Airs for over 25 years, and much of my flying time is logged in various Barons and Bonanzas, so I have been a fan of Beechcraft for a long time.

The King Air series aircraft are without argument the most successful turboprop ever built with a production run spanning 5 decades.

The King Air C90GTX / B200GT / 350I series aircraft are still in production for civilian and military applications. All are evolved from the original King Air that first rolled of the line in 1965.   

Hawker Beech’s jet aircraft in production include the Hawker 4000, Hawker 900XP,  Hawker 750, Hawker 400XP and the Premier 1A/II. The Hawker 750 and 900 series aircraft are evolutions of the original Hawker jets manufactured in the UK and are the best selling series of business jets in the world.   

Hawker Beech also manufacturers variations of the military T-6 trainer, which is the primary trainer for both the navy and air force pilot programs.

The Beech Baron G58 twin engine and Bonanza G36 single engine piston aircraft round out the line of aircraft in production.     

Arriving to the factory at Hawker Beech’s airport in Wichita, our first stop was the delivery hangar, where new aircraft were in the final stage of delivery to the new owners.  There is a large American flag on one wall, prominently displayed as reminder that these aircraft going all over the world are made in America.

Wichita is the number one city for growing exports and Hawker Beech plays a big part. The percentage of aircraft exported now exceeds the percentage staying in the US and this will continue to increase as the demand for business aircraft worldwide grows faster than in the US.

One of the things that interests me most is innovation in our business and Hawker Beechcraft has done that with their new Hawker 4000. The Hawker 4000 has a   composite fuselage and uses composites in combination with traditional metal structures in other areas of the airframe. Composites are lighter but stronger than metal structure allowing savings in weight and increases in fuel efficiency and performance, as well as reduced maintenance costs.

Use of composites in aircraft sturctures is here to stay as evidenced by the Boeing 787 having a composite fuselage.

What impressed me most from the whole tour is the sense of pride emanating from the employees, from the senior management to the people on the floor. These people are proud of what they make and should rightly be proud of the 75 plus year legacy of excellence in aircraft manufacturing.

A lot has been said about the competitiveness of the US aircraft manufacturing industry in the global market.

A current issue that Hawker Beech has to deal with is to what degree they move production out of the US to save costs. The unions in Wichita are fighting for the jobs to remain US and the decisions will be difficult. Hawker Beech must remain price competitive and at the same time they cannot afford to lose the skill and aggregated knowledge of the workforce in Wichita. 

There is a positive and determined corporate culture that I admire with the leadership and employees at Hawker Beech. That will keep them in the competitive game of aircraft manufacturing well into the future.

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In a November 1 article in the Wichita Eagle, the story is not about the manufacturers of business aircraft based in Wichita. The story is about the new competitor in business aviation who happens to be 7000 plus miles to the south of Wichita in Brazil.

 The article says “As Wichita planemakers grapple with the downturn in the business jet market, they’re keeping a keen eye on the competition. Embraer is coming directly after Wichita’s part of the market, experts say. Over the next 10 years, Embraer could take as much as 15 to 20 percent of the market away from Cessna Aircraft, Hawker Beechcraft and Bombardier Learjet, said Teal Group analyst Richard Aboulafia.”

 The reporter goes on to quote the CEO of Hawker Beechcraft: “I’m very concerned about them,” Hawker Beechcraft CEO Bill Boisture said. “They’re entering with price points, size and performance carefully selected, in my view.”

The guys in Wichita are worried. Worrying about the competition is maybe the ultimate compliment you can pay to them. But worrying about the competition doesn’t get you anywhere. I have been caught in that trap before and the only way out is to offer something of greater value to the market. It doesn’t hurt to ”keep a keen eye on the competition”  but, ultimately, you have to create your own value and innovation to succeed.

As an operator of a fleet of charter and owner-managed aircraft, I started seriously looking at Embraer over two years ago. I first took notice when they showed up at our annual business aviation convention. When the regional sales manager, Cam Gowans, contacted us to set up a meeting to talk about his new jets I thought, “why not?” For whatever reason, our company had not received a lot of attention from the sales folks at the US business jet manufacturers; so, talking to a Brazilian business jet manufacturer representative was worth my time. At that time the US companies were sold out of production several years ahead of time; so, why did they need to pay attention to an aircraft charter company in Tennessee operating Learjets and Jetstreams?

In December of 2007, I was invited by Embraer to make a visit to their headquarters and factories in Brazil. The opportunity was to ride down on a Legacy 600 reposition flight and visit the factory for a few days. This was a first for me to get invited to visit a manufacturer to tour their facilities and meet their people; so, I went.

Here is what I learned from that visit:

• Embraer has it together with both engineering and manufacturing knowledge and infrastructure that was built on 30 plus years of manufacturing regional airliners.
• Embraer is here to stay and will take market share with these new efficient, reliable and durable business jets. They are built better, priced better and operate at a lower cost! 
• The competition here in the US had better wake up or they will find themselves in second place. Remember those little Japanese car companies of the 60’s and 70’s called Toyota and Honda?

Our company ended up placing an order for three new jets to be put into service for charter. Why Embraer? Because dollar for dollar these guys are making the best of a new breed of business jets.

The Brazilians have clearly come to play and have jumped out in front; but, it is not too late for the guys in Wichita to do something about it!

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