HondaJet Media Event Dec. 9

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After more than 18 years in development, Honda Aircraft is expected to announce that its small twin-engine jet is certified Dec. 9. The company has sent invitations to aviation media to attend a “special event” at its Greensboro, N.C., plant. At the recent National Business Aviation Association convention, Honda announced that certification was imminent and that it would be holding an event in Greensboro after it was complete. A Honda spokeswoman Wednesday declined to confirm that the purpose of the event was to announce certification. Honda finished all the certification flight testing in early November and the function and reliability flights were to have been completed by Nov. 20, according to information released at NBAA.

At the NBAA news conference, HondaJet designer and now CEO Michimasa Fujino said the now-familiar aircraft, formally known as the HA-420, is the baby of a family of aircraft that will follow on as Honda get its production legs under it. It’s expected the bigger planes will share the signature wing pylon design that Honda has exhaustively tested. It’s also expected that the HF120 engine it developed with GE will be scalable to power the larger models. Meanwhile, Honda will have its hands full delivering the “more than 100” HondaJets Fujino said he has orders for. There are 25 customer aircraft on the production floor.

An earlier story termed the Dec. 9 gathering a “certification event” but Honda Aircraft said the invitation was not intended to be an announcement of any kind.

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