OSHKOSH, Wis. — Honda Motor Co., the maker of autos, motorcycles and engines, said it will enter the aviation market late this year with a seven-passenger commercial jet plane.
The company will begin taking orders this fall for its Honda-Jet, tested in Greensboro, N. C., since 2003, spokesman Jeffrey Smith said in a conference call Tuesday. Tokyo-based Honda will build the plane in the United States, he said, without giving details on where or a starting date.
“Aviation has been an important dream of Honda for more than four decades,” said Satoshi Toshida, Honda’s senior managing director, in a statement announcing the plan at the Experimental Aircraft Association AirVenture 2006 convention in Oshkosh.
“Our goal is consistent with the philosophy of other Honda products — to provide convenient and efficient transportation that will make people’s lives better.”
The company has said the plane, which chief executive Takeo Fukui has referred to as the “Honda Civic of the sky,” is designed to be more fuel efficient than conventional small jets and could fly 1, 100 miles before refueling.
Honda will compete with companies such as Textron Inc. ’s Cessna, Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautica SA and Eclipse Aviation Corp. They also are preparing similar-size “microjets” for use as corporate planes and for chartered flights. Honda a year ago flew its plane in public for the first time, calling it faster and more fuel-efficient than similar aircraft.
“Because it’s Honda, a company with a reputation as a highquality, high-volume manufacturer, this product is going to generate a lot of interest,” said Bob Zuskin, an analyst who tracks the corporate-jet market for Herndon, Va.-based GRA Aviation Specialists. “I have my doubts about how big the market for these planes will be.”
The production HondaJet will seat seven people, one more than the version the company has been testing, said Michimasa Fujino, the plane’s chief designer and engineer.
Fujino said the market for such “very light” aircraft, which sell for less than $ 4 million, will be about 200 a year. Pricing for the HondaJet may be announced in October, he said.
“It’s interesting, it’s probably fun, but is it going to be vastly profitable ? That seems unlikely,” said Jeffrey Scharf, whose Santa Cruz, Calif.-based Scharf Investments holds about 436, 000 Honda shares. “Then again, that’s probably what people said in the 1960 s when Honda, this motorcycle maker, announced it was getting into the car business.”
Honda said HondaJet’s patented over-the-wing engine-mount configuration helps eliminate the need for a structure to mount the engines to the rear fuselage, maximizing space in the fuselage for passengers and luggage. It said the over-the-wing mount also reduces drag at high speed to improve fuel efficiency.
The plane has aluminum wings, a fuselage made of composite plastics, and two Honda HF 118 turbofan jet engines, mounted above its wings.
Honda said its prototype HondaJet has completed more than 240 hours of flight-testing since December 2003, achieving an altitude of 43, 000 feet and a speed of about 474 mph.
Honda expects to finish technical certification of the plane within three to four years and formed an alliance with New Piper Aircraft Inc. for sales and service, Smith said.
Honda, the world’s largest maker of engines and motorcycles and Japan’s third-biggest automaker, made the first public test flight of the plane at the Oshkosh show on July 28, 2005.
Piper Aircraft, with headquarters in Vero Beach, Fla., has produced more than 144, 000 aircraft and developed more than 180 different models in its 70-year history. Information for this article was contributed by Alan Ohnsman and John Lippert of Bloomberg News and by The Associated Press.
