Hawker Beechcraft Inc., a world-leading manufacturer of business, special mission, light attack and trainer aircraft, filed for Chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York on Thursday. (socyberty.com) More...
SAD Day when everyone at the company is a Money Grabbing me first employee. From the CEO that thinks they are worth double digit millions a year. Down to the line worker that thinks, no one else in the company deserves to make for than them as they are doing the real work. Greed and Me first is killing companies along with the jobs and prosperity they bring to the country. Honesty and a balance must be resorted in companies. The company is a team to deliver a product or service that someone is willing to pay for. If no one is willing to pay the price everyone loses. No one should be paid based on the size of his or her ego, at any level in a company.
What is SAD! is this once proud company didn't have the leadership with enough forethought to diversify it's product line. Look at Cessna, another one that is having tuff times. They cancelled it's Columbus jet that would have carried them through these economic times. Just look at Bombardier, the Global Expresses, Challenger 300's and 605's are carrying this compnay enough where they make a profit AND are still able to pump out new products (Lear 85 and Global 7000 & 8000)This economic environment didn't hurt the BIG stuff. Good leadership for Bombardier.
I can say with good authority that the aviation side of Bombardier is OK. Its Bombardiers diversification that helps them. Trains and BRP are doing very well which gives Bombardier cash flow. Also before the downturn they were cash positive and have been able to maintain in the development of new products. Cessna itself without textron would be gone.
With a debt of some $ 2.3 BILLION which just can not be erased as the article implies and the bad financial situation of the U.S. and the world in general demanding less and less luxurious bussiness jets, the future for this great company is cloudy to say the least.
I agree. Seems like they are over extended with too many irons in the fire. Beech has always built wonderful airplanes and it is sad to see them in so much trouble. Maybe they will reorganize successfully and get going again..
asia is demanding more private jets. from dubai to tianjin to indonesia. it's the western markets that are not buying. it's more of a mismanagement issue than anything. perhaps poor planning or adaptation to the change in western purchases to asian. other private jet makers are doing fine and dont have the government work hawker has had.
No way that the Asian market can sustain so many manufacturers offering 40+ models, and this of course is a terrible mismanagement/planning mistake that all of the manufacturers made.
I've flow their products for over 2,500 hours, from Sierras to King Airs, and what a wonderful aircraft they make. I am saddened to see the results of tough times, and a slow economy lead to this unfortunate historical step. Think of the risk that Walter Beech took with the D-18 and the first V-tail, wow. Better yet, he made it, which cannot be said of the current or recent management folks. Sad indeed.
This is what private equity firms do. Buy a company, load up on debt, get their money back and let the company drown in debt. While extremely profitable for private equity firms, most others associated with the company take a loss.
Something is indeed amiss for this company to have financial difficulty. It seems to me they could survive on just two products that have been tremendously successful: the Hawker Jet and the King Air turbo-prop.
i wonder how much management stands to make on this deal? my bet is about 12 million per manager....then they will steal the pensions of all the employees and raise their health care premium.
I'm not surprised by this. Rockwell Collins recently moved a part of the company out of KS (where Hawker Beech manufactures). It was only a matter of time until this ocurred.
These comments are proof that airplane pilots and airplane enthusiasts often are good at one thing. And it ain't macro economics. There has been some greed and mismanagement since the first wheel was sold to Igor. What is killing these companies and tens of thousands like them is crushing regulation, impossible taxation, profound and unrestrained government spending. The cost of liability insurance, health insurance, OSHA regs, EPA regs across the globe on and on is what's stifling business. Get the politicians out of business, let workers work, products sell,d/markets function, let fossil fuels be explored. Productivity must be unleashed. Unemployment worldwide needs to get under 5%, governments have to be strapped down with their only function to dismantle the horror of socialistic tax paid spending instituted in the 1930's in the US (FDR) and right after WWII in most other western countries. Thanks to US foreign aid. Take off the blinders people. Quit whining about "greedy" CEO's. Look what you've voted into office for 60 years.
No James, what is killing the business jet makers is that they have just too many damn models to offer, just count them, at least 40 among all of them all chasing the same small number of buyers. Cessna has Textron to support them, Gulfstream is part of General Dynamics, Embraer is the darling of the Brazilian Government and Bombardier has trains and other things to sell but Hawker Beech had no one to assist them in hard times.Too bad, really.
The Obama administration forbide Hawker/Beech from bidding on a big government contract basically giving it to the Brazilions. Media did not report on this as usual.
WRONG answer!! The FEDs knew they would not be able to satisfy the contract if they had won. The cash from the training contract would have been a bandaid to the bigger problem.
Credit is the correct answer....credit was easy to get and their sales projected that...when the boom bubble burst credit became scarse as well as the ability to make payments and the desire to spend unnesserry(i know it's spelled wrong) money.
