Jessica Reed is a writer and editor with AIN. She joined the team in the fall of 2023 after two years covering the aviation industry at Avionics International. She earned her bachelor&#039;s degree in English (Writing &amp; Rhetoric) from Pepperdine University. Her hometown is St. Louis, Missouri, and she since has resided in Santa Barbara, California, and Brooklyn, New York, among others. She is currently based in Philadelphia.

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James Edward “Jim” Schuster, who led the turnaround of Raytheon Aircraft and its transition to Hawker Beechcraft in the 2000s, passed away on Thursday, May 8, in Wichita. He was 72.
Under Schuster’s leadership from 2001 to 2008, the Wichita-based OEM implemented sweeping changes that revitalized the struggling aircraft manufacturer. When appointed chairman and CEO in 2001, Schuster inherited a company facing severe financial challenges, with operating cash flow consuming nearly $1 billion in the three years prior to his arrival.
Schuster quickly took decisive action, implementing cost reductions while simultaneously reorganizing the senior leadership team. In what AIN described as “one of the most thorough corporate management shakeups of a business aircraft manufacturer ever,” he restructured the executive ranks in 2001 and implemented the Six Sigma manufacturing quality improvement process throughout the organization.
His approach to management was hands-on. Soon after taking the helm, Schuster moved from the company’s plush headquarters to “Mahogany Row” in Plant One, where hourly employees could see him through his open office door.
During his nearly eight-year tenure, Schuster led the rebranding effort that reinvigorated the Hawker and Beechcraft names, a move that facilitated the company’s transition from Raytheon Aircraft to Hawker Beechcraft when Raytheon sold the company to Goldman Sachs and Onex in 2007.
His leadership resulted in record order backlogs in his final years at the helm, expanded global operations, certification of 19 new aircraft, and increased government and special-mission aircraft sales. Upon <a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/2008-11-20/schuster-plans-retire-hawker-beechcraft">announcing his retirement</a> in November 2008, Hawker Beechcraft chairman Sanjeev Mehra described Schuster as “a true leader who has positioned Hawker Beechcraft atop general aviation.”
Schuster is survived by his wife, Ann Marie Schuster; sons Jeremy, Jesse, and Christian; three grandsons; two brothers, William and Roger; sister Lori Guedes; and brother-in-law Mike Landeras.

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James Edward “Jim” Schuster led the turnaround of Raytheon Aircraft and its transition to Hawker Beechcraft in the 2000s

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In this article

Raytheon

Hawker Beechcraft

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