Aircraft
Hawker Horizon earns provisional FAA approval
While the Raytheon Hawker Horizon was one of the first to blaze the super-midsize business jet trail when it was launched at the 1996 NBAA Convention in Or

While the Raytheon Hawker Horizon was one of the first to blaze the super-midsize business jet trail when it was launched at the 1996 NBAA Convention in Orlando, Fla., it became the last of the new breed to be certified. The airplane gained provisional FAA approval just two days before Christmas, almost four years after the originally expected spring 2001 approval.

Hawker president Bratt Hatt said remaining certification items for the new Horizon twinjet include flight into known icing conditions, thrust reversers and systems integration (described as “Honeywell software issues” for the Primus Epic integrated flight deck). Raytheon expects to complete these items by the second quarter, though full certification won’t be granted until the end of June, when Horizon RC-4 finishes its function and reliability testing.