The Model 390 Premier I was the first all new, in-house product of the Raytheon Aircraft Beech/Hawker engineering department since the Beech Duke 60 in 1966. It is an entry level corporate jet designed to compete with Cessna's highly successful CJ1 series.
Design work on the Premier I began in early 1994 and was first called the PD-374. It is a new generation of business jet that is slightly smaller than the Mitsubishi designed Beechjet 400.
The Premier I was designed using CATIA computer aided design. It takes advantage of the composite manufacturing technology learned on the Beech Starship. The Premiere is powered by two Williams Rolls FJ44 engines that give it a long-range cruise speed of 0.80 mach.
The composite fuselage allows advanced production techniques to be used. The Premier I fuselage can be constructed in just one day, compared to a conventional airframe that requires one to two weeks to complete.
The Premier I cockpit has the Collins Pro Line 21 EFIS avionics suite.
The first flight for the Premiere I was on December 22, 1998. Certification was obtained in 2001 and it was in production until 2005, when it was superseded by the Premier IA.
