Business Jets - The Raytheon Hawker 4000

Business Jets - The Raytheon Hawker 4000

The Hawker 4000 is an all-new super mid size corporate jet built by the Raytheon Aircraft Company. It was originally announced under the name of Hawker Horizon in 1996, but didn't debut until November 2005.

The Horizon's design is based upon the philosophy of combining the earlier Hawkers' popular characteristics with new advanced technologies, so it was deliberately designed to look, feel and fly like a Hawker.

The 4000 follows the line of the previous Hawker 1000, but compared to its predecessor, the Horizon has a wider, slightly longer fuselage with a flat floor, a cabin with stand up headroom and a heavier maximum takeoff weight. The Horizon features an all-composite fuselage built in three sections and manufactured using the automated fiber placement technology developed for the Premier I, which was a parallel project that Raytheon was working on at the time. The empennage features an aluminum sub structure and carbon fiber skin.

The carbon composite construction used in the Horizon gives it more interior space than many jets in its class. This composite construction also makes the aircraft much lighter than a standard aluminum structure, allowing a maximum range of 3,445 nautical miles, and a service ceiling of 45,000 ft.

The flight deck systems feature a Primus Epic flight control system and flight management system. The navigation suite consists of a dual VHF omni directional radio navigation system, dual distance measuring equipment, dual inertial navigation system, dual global positioning system, an electronic ground proximity warner, a TCAS II terrain collision avoidance system and a Primus 880 color weather radar.

The Hawker 4000 is powered by 2 Pratt & Whitney Canada PW308A turbofans, resulting in a 0.82 Mach cruising speed and a maximum speed of 0.84 Mach. The fuselage has a length of 69 ft 2 in, a wingspan of 61 ft 9 in and a height of 19 ft 7 in. The empty weight is 23,500 lb.

The aircraft is also equipped with twin-wheeled hydraulically retractable tricycle-type Messier-Dowty landing gear, which are fitted with hydraulically operated, digitally controlled carbon disc brakes and an electronic anti-skid system.
The Hawker 4000 has a crew of two pilots and can be typically set to accommodate eight people in a comfortable cabin configuration, arranged with four pairs of club chairs with writing tables. Additional cabin configurations are available, supporting a maximum capacity of 12 passengers.

The cabin air conditioning and pressurization system is digitally controlled. Cabin pressurization at a cruising altitude of 43,000 ft can be maintained at the equivalent of 6,000 ft altitude compared to 8,000 ft on conventional aircraft.