When Jim Schuster was appointed Chairman and CEO of Raytheon Aircraft Company (RAC) in May 2001, he inherited a struggling subsidiary with an uncertain future. What followed over the next several years was a remarkable transformation.  He not only led with operational discipline and bold leadership, but also with a clear-eyed recognition that the future of general aviation was increasingly global.

Schuster proved to be the consummate ‘Fix It Man’. Under his stewardship, RAC was revitalized and ultimately reborn as Hawker Beechcraft Corporation, which was sold to Goldman Sachs and Onex Partners in 2007. He retired the following year, leaving behind a company fundamentally changed from the one he had inherited. Central to that transformation was his deep interest in international markets and his willingness to go wherever those markets led.

Paris, June 2001 — A Dinner on the Champs-Élysées

The story of Jim Schuster's international ambitions begins, fittingly, at one of the most prestigious aviation events in the world. At the Paris Air Show in June 2001, just weeks into his new role, Schuster was introduced to Adnan Kassar, a Lebanese businessman of considerable standing. Mr. Kassar and his family owned Fransabank, headquartered in Beirut with branches spanning the Middle East, Africa, and France. Beyond banking, Kassar served as Chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce and presented as a man deeply embedded in the fabric of global commerce.

The introduction was a product of an existing relationship: Kassar had purchased a Hawker 800XP the year prior. At the air show, he extended a gracious invitation, a dinner at his private Paris residence, a beautiful home just off the Champs-Élysées. It proved to be a memorable evening, and Kassar went a step further, inviting us to his nephew's wedding in Beirut, scheduled for early September.

Schuster accepted the invitation, though as the date approached, he had second thoughts. I reminded him that in Middle Eastern culture, a man's word, once given, is not easily retracted, this settled any hesitation and he agreed to go.

In this culture, once you give your word, you need to follow through with it.

Beirut, September 2001 — Weddings, Wineries, and the Weight of History

Jim Schuster and his wife Ann arrived in Beirut on September 4th, 2001, and checked into the InterContinental Phoenicia Hotel alongside a constellation of wedding guests including jet-setters from across Europe and the Middle East. That evening, we were driven to Mr. Kassar's Beirut home for dinner, escorted by a bodyguard and transported in an armored car, which was a standard precaution arranged by Raytheon Company, given Schuster's dual role as an Executive Vice President of the parent company.

The days that followed were a blend of hospitality, history, and discovery. Among the highlights was a visit to Chateau Ksara, one of the oldest wineries in the Middle East. Founded in 1857 by Jesuit priests in the cave-riddled landscape of the Beqaa Valley, the winery was acquired by the Kassar family in 1972. The wedding reception itself was held in the vineyard, an elegant, unhurried celebration in one of Lebanon's most storied settings.

On September 9th, Jim and Ann Schuster boarded their flight back to Dallas. The following day, enroute to London for a scheduled business meeting, life intervened in a way no one could have anticipated.

London, September 11, 2001 — A World Changed

The meeting on September 11th was with Eddie Jordan, owner of the Jordan Grand Prix Formula One team, based at Silverstone. It was a routine business call… until it wasn't.

Just before entering the 1:00 p.m. meeting, I made a brief phone call home, which provided the first bit of news: a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. My initial assumption was a small aircraft, a tragic accident in the sky over Manhattan. The meeting proceeded. By the time our meeting concluded, the full truth had emerged, and we learned that a coordinated al-Qaeda terrorist attack involving the hijacking of commercial airliners, two of which had been deliberately flown into the Twin Towers. The Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania had also been struck. We could not know how the world would inevitably change.

What followed was a week's wait in London before transatlantic flights resumed to a somewhat normal schedule, then an overnight stop in Chicago before finally returning to Wichita. The world that greeted us when we arrived back in the U.S. was a different one from the world we had left.

In retrospect, the Beirut trip took on an added dimension of significance. The group had departed Lebanon on September 9th — two days before the attacks that would reshape the global aviation landscape and, indeed, the geopolitical world. The timing was uncomfortably close.

São Paulo, March 2003 — Banking on Brazil

By early 2003, Schuster's attention turned to Latin America. He chose to attend LABACE: the Latin American Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition annually held in São Paulo, Brazil, with a specific objective: to meet customers, assess the market, and identify opportunities.

A meeting was arranged with Banco Bradesco, one of Brazil's most formidable financial institutions. Founded in 1943 by Amador Aguiar and headquartered in São Paulo, Banco Bradesco is the third-largest bank in Brazil and has long been recognized for something more unusual than its size: its management philosophy.

Banco Bradesco operates under a distinctive open management model that has drawn the attention of business schools and corporations across the world, including Japan. The bank has invested heavily in education since 1956, offering programs to all Brazilians and guaranteeing employment upon graduation. Some of Brazil's most accomplished athletes and professionals trace their beginnings to Bradesco's educational initiatives.

The boardroom visit that accompanied the meeting was itself a study in organizational culture. During an earlier visit more than two decades prior, related to a Citation aircraft sale, the boardroom had featured two long conference tables set some thirty feet apart: one for the Chairman and his immediate staff, the other for senior management. There were no drawers, no private storage, no individual telephones. All business was conducted openly, without the politics or hidden agendas. Documents were carried physically from one table to the other by assistants stationed just outside the room.

By the time of the 2003 visit, the room had been updated and reached by helicopter. A single conference table now occupied a sunken central area, while senior staff worked at individual stations arranged around the perimeter, each equipped with computers and phones. The underlying philosophy, however, remained intact: transparency, accessibility, and the absence of bureaucratic concealment.

No Hawker aircraft was sold during this visit. But Schuster gained something arguably more valuable — a firsthand encounter with one of the most progressive management cultures in the corporate world.

China, October 2005 — One Week, Five Cities, and a Blacklist

The most logistically ambitious of Schuster's international forays came in October 2005, when Jim requested my expertise to orchestrate a comprehensive visit to China, condensed by necessity into a single week. Jason Liao helped create an itinerary that would be considered a masterclass in efficient diplomacy. 

Saturday, October 8th: Jim Schuster and I flew via the company's Hawker 1000 to Chicago O'Hare, then boarded a United flight to Beijing. Upon arrival on Monday, following a brief rest, we visited Raytheon Aircraft's Beijing office and met the Chinese team. That Monday evening, we joined a customer with a Hawker 4000 on order for dinner.

Our Tuesday began with a frank meeting at the Chinese Foreign Ministry and delivered news that was as clarifying as it was disappointing. The ministry officials confirmed what we had long suspected: Raytheon Aircraft had been effectively blacklisted by the Chinese government. The cause was not the subsidiary's own doing, but a decision made at the parent company level: Raytheon had relocated its China office from Beijing to Taipei. In Beijing's eyes, this constituted an unacceptable political statement. Orders had come from the highest levels of government to deny business to Raytheon and its subsidiaries.

They had orders from the very top to not allow any business to us. The message was clear, if unwelcome.

Despite this geopolitical obstacle, the trip continued with remarkable momentum. That same afternoon, a Hawker 800XP chartered through Deer Jet carried Jim, Jason, and me to Hainan Island, where we were received as guests of HNA Group, Deer Jet's parent company. The group was collected at the airport in a stretch limousine and escorted to HNA Group's guest house, a facility designed by the company's president, Mr. Wang. Dinner that evening was hosted by Mr. Chen Feng, Chairman of HNA Group.

Wednesday brought a tour of HNA Group's campus and headquarters, a striking facility, before the charter flew the group to Shanghai where Jason had organized a meeting with the CEO and senior staff of Shanghai Airlines, another Hawker customer. A client dinner followed that evening.

Thursday saw the group fly onward to Tokyo, where they met with ITOCHU, Raytheon Aircraft's Japanese representative, for dinner. By Friday morning, they were aboard a United flight back to Chicago, and by that evening, back in Wichita aboard the company Hawker 1000.

Five cities. Five days. A geopolitical obstacle confronted directly, key relationships reinforced, and a clear-eyed understanding of what it would take to operate in one of the world's most complex aviation markets, and all done in a single week.

Conclusion

Jim Schuster's international journeys carried a strategic purpose: to understand markets, build relationships, and see firsthand the challenges and opportunities that could not be grasped from behind a desk in Wichita.

From a dinner off the Champs-Élysées to a boardroom in São Paulo, from the HNA Group's guest house on Hainan Island to a meeting room at the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Schuster engaged the world with the directness and curiosity that defined his tenure at Raytheon Aircraft. The company he left behind, Hawker Beechcraft, bore the imprint of that global vision.

In the end, the airplanes were almost secondary. What Schuster understood was that international business is built on trust, cultural respect, and the willingness to show up — even when it would have been easier to stay home.

Jim Schuster passed away on May 8, 2025, leaving a legacy.