The Raytheon Company is a major American defense contractor and industrial corporation with core manufacturing concentrations in weapons and military and commercial electronics. It was previously involved in corporate and special-mission aircraft until early 2007. Raytheon is the world's largest producer of guided missiles.

Established in 1922, the company reincorporated in 1928 and adopted its present name in 1959. The company has around 63,000 employees worldwide and annual revenues of approximately US$25 billion. More than 90% of Raytheon's revenues were obtained from military contracts and, as of 2012, it was the fifth-largest military contractor in the world, and is the fourth largest defense contractor in the United States by revenue.

Raytheon's headquarters moved from Lexington, Massachusetts, to Waltham, Massachusetts, in 2003. The company was previously headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, from 1922 to 1928, Newton, Massachusetts, from 1928 to 1941, Waltham from 1941 to 1961, Lexington from 1961 to 2003, and back to Waltham from 2003 onwards.

The Beechcraft T-6 Texan II is a single-engine turboprop aircraft built by the Raytheon Aircraft Company (which became Hawker Beechcraft and is now Beechcraft Corporation). Based on the Pilatus PC-9, the T-6 has replaced the Air Force's Cessna T-37B Tweet and the Navy's T-34C Turbo Mentor. The T-6A is used by the United States Air Force for basic pilot training and Combat Systems Officer (CSO) training and by the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps for Primary and Intermediate Naval Flight Officer (NFO) training. The T-6A is also used as a basic trainer by the Royal Canadian Air Force (CT-156 Harvard II), the Greek Air Force, the Israeli Air Force (Efroni), and the Iraqi Air Force. The T-6B is the primary trainer for U.S. Student Naval Aviators. The T-6C is used for training by the Royal Moroccan Air Force, the Royal New Zealand Air Force and the Mexican Air Force.

Design and development

The T-6 is a development of the Pilatus PC-9, modified significantly by Beechcraft in order to enter the Joint Primary Aircraft Training System (JPATS) competition in the 1990s. A similar arrangement between Pilatus and British Aerospace had also been in place for a Royal Air Force competition in the 1980s, although that competition selected the Short Tucano. The aircraft was designated under the 1962 United States Tri-Service aircraft designation system and named for the decades-earlier T-6 Texan.

The Beechcraft 1900 is a 19-passenger, pressurized twin-engine turboprop fixed-wing aircraft that was manufactured by Beechcraft. It was designed, and is primarily used, as a regional airliner. It is also used as a freight aircraft and corporate transport and by the United States military and other governments.

The aircraft is designed to carry passengers in all weather conditions from airports with relatively short runways. It is capable of flying in excess of 600 miles (970 km), although few operators use its full-fuel range. In terms of the number of aircraft built and its continued use by many passenger airlines and other users, it is one of the most popular 19-passenger airliners in history.

Development

The 1900 is Beechcraft's third regional airliner. The Beechcraft Model 18 was a 6- to 11-passenger utility aircraft produced from 1937 to 1970, used by the military, airlines, charter operations, corporations for executive transport, and freight carriers. The 15-passenger Beechcraft Model 99 Airliner was designed to replace the Beech 18, and was produced between 1966 and 1975, and from 1982 to 1986. It was also commercially successful and remains in common use with freight airlines such as Ameriflight.