More Delays Logged in HondaJet Program

The HondaJet program has once again been delayed. Honda Aircraft began notifying buyers last month that delivery of the first HA-420 HondaJet is now planned for the third quarter of 2012. “Regrettably we’ve experienced delays in some components,” a HondaJet spokesman told AIN. He declined to identify the suppliers involved in the latest setback for the program. The maiden flight of the first design- and production-conforming HondaJet is now scheduled for this November, and Honda Aircraft expects FAA certification to follow 20 months later, late in the third quarter of 2012. The previous schedule had the first conforming HondaJet taking flight in the middle of this year, followed by certification and entry into service at the end of next year.