Another HondaJet flies

At EBACE in Geneva last week, Honda Aircraft announced
that its fourth conforming HondaJet aircraft, referred to as “F3,” successfully
completed its first flight on 4 May 2012.

Stefan Johansson,
pilot-in-command, and Howard Judd, co-pilot, completed several checks during
the flight, including: takeoff and climb; landing gear and flap operations;
aircraft handling; air data system checks; and an Instrument Landing System
approach using the flight director. Overall, the aircraft performed smoothly
during its 74-minute flight, according to the pilots and telemetry teams,
flying as high as 11,500 feet and as fast as 313 Knots True Air Speed (KTAS).

“The first flight of F3
shows the steady advancement on our course toward delivering to our customers
an aircraft that offers not only superior performance, efficiency and comfort,
but also superior quality,” said Michimasa Fujino, president and chief
executive of Honda Aircraft Company. “We continue to see refinement in
reliability and quality of our aircraft. We are successfully establishing our
manufacturing foundation and process that contribute to creating high quality
product, as well as to a great flying performance and experience, as our pilots
report from just our first week of flying F3.”

Honda Aircraft has now
completed four FAA-conforming aircraft. Three of these aircraft are in its
flight test fleet, plus one additional aircraft is in its structural ground
test programme.

“With regard to our new
colour choice for F3, yellow may be unconventional for a business jet, but the
HondaJet is a new generation, advanced light jet with high performance and
efficiency.” continued Fujino. “HondaJet represents sportiness with high efficiency, so my
choice of this special yellow for F3 expresses Honda’s passion for, what we
call, our sports car in the sky.”