The fuselage and tail section of Raytheon’s Hawker Horizon has lifted off from its temporary home in the Fuselage Automated Splicing Tool (FAST) and travelled – by overhead crane – to its next assembly station.

There, the 69-foot composite-fuselage and tail section will be prepared for the next milestone: the mating of the fuselage and wing. The Horizon's first flight is scheduled for next year.

Said Hansel Tookes, chairman and ceo of Raytheon Aircraft: “The aircraft's composite construction and unique assembly methods have allowed us

to make the Horizon’s fuselage the largest civil composite aircraft structure ever built. Early airplanes were covered with cloth. Then we moved to aluminium. Now we're taking the third technological leap in aircraft construction by using composites.”