With AIN Media Group's Aviation International News and its predecessor Aviation Convention News celebrating the company's 50th year of continuous publication this year, AIN’s editorial staff is going back through the archives each month to bring readers some interesting events that were covered over the past half-century.

REWIND: (AIN February 2014 p.3) In one of the biggest consolidations in the business aviation industry since Bombardier Aerospace combined Canadair, Learjet, de Havilland, and Short Brothers in the late 1980s/early 1990s, Cessna Aircraft parent Textron announced on December 26 that it will acquire Beech Holdings, the parent of Beechcraft Corp. for approximately $1.4 billion in cash.

Under the terms of the transaction, Textron will acquire the entire company—including the Hawker 4000 and Premier 1A type certificates, which Beechcraft had on the market and intended to sell separately. In fact, Textron initially entered talks intending to buy just these jet assets before changing course to acquire the whole company.

FAST FORWARD: While production of the Hawker 4000 and Premier IA ended during Beechcraft’s bankruptcy, the deal allowed Textron to neatly plug the turboprop gap in its lineup with the King Air family. At the time of its acquisition, Beechcraft had delivered nearly 7,200 of the twin-engine aircraft.    z