AVIATION
Honda Aircraft Company
The Honda HA-420 Jet Chances are that when you hear the name Honda, you think of its vehicles and motorcycles, but is it the only thing that they produce? No! In fact, the company has developed and implemented its very own personal aircraft model, says Oliver Taylor. t isn’t unlikely that you haven’t heard of it, seeing as it isn’t particularly used in civil aviation, nor is it as famous as some other luxury aircraft, so most passengers aren’t acquainted with Honda’s first commercially available airplane. However, it is most definitely worth looking at, with its innovative design and $5,280,000 USD price tag. Read on to meet this unique jet! For the design and creation of this model, the automobile giant established a special department, which then evolved into a separate company dedicated to the production of business jets. The Honda Aircraft Company - a subsidiary of the Honda Motor Company, introduced its first aircraft’s flight in 2003. The company developed it completely on its own, without any support from outside, and used only Japanese parts and local labour throughout the process of its production. The model was called the Honda HA-420 HondaJet.
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POWERED BY GE HONDA / HF120 ENGINES OF 2050 LBF EACH, THE JET HAS A MAXIMUM CRUISING SPEED OF 790 KILOMETERS PER HOUR AND A MAXIMUM RANGE OF 2000 KILOMETRES.
PRAISED FOR ITS DESIGN The HA-420 HondaJet is a small twin-engine business-class personal aircraft. While Michimasa Fujino, the founding president and CEO of the Honda Aircraft Company, has been working on the model since the 1990s, it has appeared in operation only by 2011 and began deliveries in December 2015 as the global financial crisis hindered the
process. However, the jet quickly found its clientele and has been praised for its design. In terms of technical specifications, the HA420’s exterior is 12.99 meters long, with a total height of 4.54 meters and a wingspan of 12.12 meters. Its interior is 5.43 meters long, 1.52 meters wide and 1.47 meters high. The typical configuration includes up to 1 crew and 6 passengers (or 2 crew and 5 passengers). For baggage space, its combined stowage is 66 cubic feet. Powered by GE Honda / HF120 engines of 2050 lbf each, the jet has a maximum cruising speed of 790 kilometers per hour and a maximum range of 2000 kilometers. A PRACTICAL SMALL AIRCRAFT As you can see, Honda has created a practical small aircraft designed for business. Due to its size, it has little weight and thus consumes much less fuel than other conventional private jets. Among its many defining features, the HondaJet’s engines are mounted on pylons above the wings, it has a laminar shape of nose and wings, and enjoys efficient pilot equipment in the cockpit. The placement of the engines above the wings corresponds to a concept drawn by Fujino over twenty years ago. This choice of position is dictated by the desire to improve the aerodynamic characteristics of the aircraft. In addition, this allows you to make the jet’s cabin and cargo compartment more spacious, as well as reduce noise and vibration within the plane. While the company has focused exclusively on the HA-420 so far, its Greensboro hangars are much taller than what the jet needs, which hints that there are more projects planned for the future. EG
Photo: Oleksandr Naumenko / Shutterstock.com
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• Productivity, Strategy, Profitability