Aero: Honda Delivers To Europe

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With nearly five months of certification behind it and production ramping up, Honda announced at Aero Wednesday that is has delivered the first HA-420 HondaJet to Europe. Although the airplane has appeared previously at Aero in mockup form, this week’s announcement marked the first time the actual aircraft has appeared at Aero. The airplane will be operated by Rheinland Air Services, one of three regional Honda aircraft dealers in Europe.

It will initially be used as a demonstrator in Europe. The HondaJet is currently priced at $4.85 million and HondaJet CEO Michimasa Fujino said six aircraft have been delivered and a seventh is about to be. Fujino said Europe is a significant market for Honda, with at least 20 percent of the aircraft’s 100 or so orders originating on the continent. In Honda’s Greensboro, North Carolina, factory, production is slowly ramping up to an eventual capacity of 70 to 80 units a year. Currently, Fujino said, production capacity is about three aircraft per month. The HondaJet, an eyeball-catching staple of every major airshow for the last decade, was first proposed in 1997, but didn’t begin serious design and prototype work until 2003, with the decision to commercialize it made in 2006.

Honda claims the HA-420 is a class leader in speed, at 420 knots, and in cabin comfort. It also claims to be as much as 17 percent more efficient than its closest competitors, thanks to a low-drag, laminar flow wing and Honda’s unique over-the-wing engine mount.

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