FRAMINGHAM (04/03/2000) - Continuing its electronic-business roll, Raytheon Co. this week will launch EverythingAircraft.com, an Internet trading exchange for the $5 billion leisure aircraft market.
The site will initially target business users by aggregating data and brokering deals among parts suppliers and service providers. Three months from now, the plan is to extend the site's appeal to a wide audience of consumers, ranging from model airplane hobbyists to aircraft owners.
"It's for anyone fascinated with airplanes and flight," said Eric Singleton, Raytheon's director of global electronic business.
Singleton said EverythingAircraft.com was in development before Raytheon's partnership with Boeing, Lockheed and BAE Systems was formed.
"Raytheon is working on how to include EverthingAircraft.com in the multipartner, independent exchange announced last Tuesday," he said. In the meantime, "we want to move rapidly and capture this market now."
Raytheon, a $20 billion aerospace and defense giant best known as a maker of cruise missiles and fighter-jet radar devices, also owns Raytheon Aircraft Co., a $2.5 billion Wichita, Kansas-based maker of airplanes, including the Beech, Hawker and Bonanza lines.
The company, which also makes radar devices for boats, recently launched a Web site geared toward both businesses and consumers in the leisure-boating market.
"The whole Raytheon e-business strategy is to take advantage of its brand strength in known and unknown areas," Singleton said.