Free Republic

The surprise announcement yesterday that NetJets Chairman David Sokol had resigned from Berkshire Hathaway under a cloud of insider trading suspicion produced smiles of satisfaction among many general aviation leaders. When the word of Sokol’s sudden exit spread during a dinner at the Sun ‘n Fun airshow in Lakeland, Fla., last night, one general aviation manufacturing CEO said, “There’s celebrating going on in Wichita and Savannah today.” Sokol cancelled orders for hundreds of business jets built by Cessna and Hawker Beechcraft, both based in Wichita, Kan., and Gulfstream, which is headquartered in Savannah, Ga. He said he did so to...

Boeing has won a US Army contract to deliver a new fleet of signals intelligence aircraft called the enhanced medium altitude reconnaissance and surveillance system (EMARSS). The army's communications electronic command (CECOM) awarded Boeing an $88 million contract on 30 November to launch the engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) phase. Boeing officials were not immediately available to comment on the EMARSS victory, but details about the contract have been disclosed by competitors. Last month, L-3 Communications chief executive Michael Strianese described EMARSS to Wall Street analysts as a $1.5 billion programme for at least 30 aircraft. The EMD phase includes...

Banks got lambasted for their corporate jets after receiving government money. Congress and the public scourged auto executives for flying their private planes to Washington to beg for cash. Now, Wichita, Kan.-based planemakers Cessna Aircraft Co. and Hawker Beechcraft Corp. are launching marketing campaigns to convince executives not to let their wings be clipped. "Timidity didn't get you this far," the Cessna ad reads, adding that "true visionaries will continue to fly." Support needs to be given to businesses that have the "good judgment and courage" to use corporate planes not only to survive the recession but also to find...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Let's go to the audio sound bites. This is, let's see, Brad Sherman (Democrat-California) interviewing -- or interrogating -- the bank CEOs yesterday as part of the House Financial Services Committee hearing. SHERMAN: I'd like you to raise your hand if your company currently owns or leases a private plane. Let the record show all the hands, uh, went up except, uh, for the, uh, gentleman from, uh, Goldman Sachs. Gentlemen, we know that it is extremely expensive to operate these planes, that you could sell them and generate capital for your company and that capital could...

Airplane maker Hawker Beechcraft Corp. told employees Tuesday that 2,300 of them will lose their jobs before the end of the year and warned more layoffs may be coming. In a letter to workers, Chairman and Chief Executive Jim Schuster said most laid off workers will be notified by Friday. Nearly 500 Hawker Beechcraft workers also lost their jobs late last year. In addition to declining orders and deliveries, the Wichita-based company is facing a host of new challenges, Schuster said. "The government's stimulus package has failed to sufficiently loosen credit markets, which are absolutely vital to the success of...