Schuster aims to bring RAC ‘back to greatness’
News from Raytheon Aircraft Co.

News from Raytheon Aircraft Co. (RAC) for the last several years has been mostly bad. For the three years before Jim Schuster’s appointment as chairman and CEO of RAC last May, the Wichita-based airplane manufacturer posted ever-increasing expenses, with operating cash flow consuming nearly $1 billion over that time. So it is no wonder that the first thing Schuster did when he took over was to examine the OEM’s financials.

“We spent much of our time the first few months last year getting the costs out,” he said last month. Very quickly 1,800 full-time employees lost their jobs, in addition to about 500 contract workers. Another 200 or so followed this year. Capital budgets were slashed. “I told the Raytheon board of directors that we would cut as much cost as we can as fast as we can and it still wouldn’t be enough,” he said.