A division of Honda appears set to begin flight testing a scaled-down prototype of an unmanned electric aircraft, though few details about the development programme are known.
The Federal Aviation Administration on 29 October granted Honda Research Institute, a California-based technology development arm of the company, an exemption allowing it to complete demonstration flights of an electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOL).
The FAA’s approval letter calls the aircraft an “R&D subscale model test vehicle N241RX” that weighs more than 25kg (55lb).
The approval authorises Honda Research Institute to fly the aircraft for two years, through October 2026.
Little is known about the in-development aircraft.
North Carolina-based Honda Aircraft declined to comment, saying it “doesn’t have any information it would like to disclose… at this time”.
FAA records show that the agency issued Honda Research Institute a certification for an electric rotorcraft with registration N241RX in December 2022.
Honda has previously disclosed an internal project to develop a hybrid-electric passenger-carrying “Honda eVTOL” with 216nm (400km) of range.
“Honda continues with its vision of skyward mobility, which means we are adding and increasing our focus on eVTOL,” Honda Aircraft chief commercial officer Amod Kelkar said in October 2023. “Designing, manufacturing, supporting, on a very large scale, is what Honda is looking at.”
Honda’s website broadly describes its eVTOL concept. The design is to have a “gas turbine hybrid power unit”, fixed wings, eight lifting propellers and two aft-mounted propellers providing forward propulsion. “The multi-rotor configuration not only ensures safety but also enables smaller rotor diameters, resulting in an overwhelming level of quiet operation compared to helicopters,” the website says.
The project will benefit from Honda Aircraft’s experience in certificating its HA-420 HondaJet business aircraft, it adds. “Our know-how in the FAA certification process will enable us to increase the efficiency of eVTOL development and speed up the delivery of Honda eVTOL to our customers.”
Honda Research Institute applied in March to the FAA for authority to fly the aircraft for demonstration purposes. That application is marked “confidential” and is not available on the US government’s public records website.
Records show that a Honda Research Institute employee named Justin Nevitt discussed the project with FAA staff twice this year. Nevitt, a former Gulfstream flight-test engineer, is Honda Research Institute’s flight-test engineer, according to his LinkedIn profile.
