Honda Aircraft has announced starting deliveries of the HondaJet to customers two weeks after obtaining airworthiness certification.
The initial deliveries to an undisclosed set of customers allow the North Carolina-based manufacturer to meet its goal of handing over aircraft by end-year.
“I hope we soon will begin to see many HondaJets at airports around the world,” says Honda Aircraft president and chief executive Michimasa Fujino.
The $4.5 million light jet with distinctive, over-the-wing mounted engines has been in development for nearly a decade.
Honda also established a joint venture with GE Aviation to complete development of the HF120 turbofan engines for the HondaJet.
A Level D flight simulator at Honda’s training centre in Greensboro, North Carolina, is now training customers.
Separately, Embraer also has started to deliver the super-light Legacy 450 to customers. It follows a larger, sister aircraft – the Legacy 500 – into service by more than a year.
The Brazilian civil aeronautics agency ANAC awarded a type certificate for the fly-by-wire Legacy 450 in August.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
