Beechcraft’s out-of-production Hawker 4000 is back in business, at least in testing. Textron Aviation, which acquired the Beech product line a year ago, has been flight-testing a winglet-equipped Hawker 4000 at Beech Factory Airport in Wichita.

Textron Aviation confirms that “winglet testing is conducted utilizing a variety of product platforms in the evaluation of aftermarket modification and new product scenarios.” But the company declined to specify whether the testing on the 4000 is for aftermarket applications or potential new products.

Some observers have suggested that the company is testing the super-midsize aircraft’s Fuji-built metal wings for other potential airframes, including those designed by Cessna. The testing has been under way while Cessna ramps up progress with its Citation Longitude, now under development as a super-midsize stretch of the Latitude.

Cessna has been quiet about that program while focus remained on the Latitude. But Scott Donnelly, chairman and CEO of Cessna parent Textron, told analysts in January that work has accelerated on the Longitude and “we think we know what the configuration of the aircraft is, based on a lot of work with customers and where we are.” Donnelly added that the debut of the Longitude might come sometime “in the not-too-distant future.”

As for Beech Field, Textron Aviation is said to have invested in using the airport for testing programs early in development. One executive likened it to the company’s “Skunk Works” site. The executive also noted that Textron Aviation continues to look at the entire portfolio of Cessna and Beechcraft products to see where the company can build on those assets.

In 2012, Beechcraft suspended production of the composite-fuselage Hawker 4000 and announced it would end certain warranty support for the model as the financially beleaguered company prepared to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Production was suspended just five years after the aircraft entered service and with fewer than 100 in the fleet.

Beechcraft introduced the aircraft in 1996 as the Hawker Horizon, taking advantage of carbon-fiber tow placement technology the company had acquired for the Beechcraft Premier. Plans originally called for the aircraft to enter service in 2001, but first delivery did not happen until 2008. Once it had emerged from bankruptcy in 2013, Beechcraft tried to package the Hawker 4000 and the Premier for sale to a company that could support the fleets. Instead, Textron acquired all of Beechcraft, and while maintaining that none of the Hawker lines would return to production, vowed to support the aircraft fully.