 Throughout much of the 20th century, Beechcraft was considered one of the "Big Three" in the field of general aviation manufacturing, along with Cessna and Piper Aircraft.In 1994, Raytheon merged Beechcraft with the Hawker product line it had acquired in 1993 from British Aerospace, forming Raytheon Aircraft Company.In 2002, the Beechcraft brand was revived to again designate the Wichita-produced aircraft.