Honda Aircraft Celebrates 20 Years

Twenty years ago, leaders at Honda Motor Co. stood up a new division, Honda Aircraft, turning the research and development (R&D) program that saw the prototype HondaJet achieve first flight in 2003 into a commercial business jet program. The clean-sheet HondaJet design by Michimasa Fujino, leader of the R&D program, was powered by the HF118 engine, which was designed and built by another team at Honda in Japan, marking a rare occurrence, especially in the business aviation world: one company developing an entirely new airplane and engine.

In 2005, Fujino brought the prototype HondaJet to EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and attendees crowded eagerly around the airplane, marveling at the unique design with its over-the-wing-mounted engines. The commercialization decision followed in 2006, and at that year’s NBAA convention the newly formed Honda Aircraft began taking orders for the HA-420 very light jet.

The decision had been made to partner with GE on the more powerful HF120 engine, and the two companies formed GE Honda Aero Engines to develop and certify the new powerplant. Honda Aircraft also helped Garmin develop the G3000 integrated avionics suite that propelled the avionics manufacturer into the business jet market.

Since FAA certification in 2015, Honda Aircraft has delivered more than 275 HondaJets, and the jet’s performance has continued to expand. Now the latest version, the Elite II, can fly 1,547 nm (NBAA IFR range with four occupants) and at up to 422 knots. It is also equipped with Garmin’s Emergency Autoland system. The wing-mounted engines not only slowed high-speed drag rise, enabling efficient high-speed cruise, but also opened space in the rear cabin that would normally contain engine mounting structure and systems. The HondaJet has a fully enclosed lavatory with a flushing toilet.

At NBAA-BACE in October 2021, Fujino unveiled the company’s next jet, the light jet Concept 2600, which would offer U.S. coast-to-coast range and a larger, midsize-jet cabin, also using wing-mounted engines.

Hideto Yamasaki took over leadership of Honda Aircraft when Fujino retired, due to mandatory Honda age-limit rules, on March 31, 2022. In 2023, Yamasaki revealed the formal name of the Concept 2600, now known as the HondaJet Echelon. 

With assembly of components for the first prototype Echelon well underway, Honda Aircraft has grown to more than 1,000 employees at its 133-acre headquarters campus at North Carolina’s Piedmont Triad International Airport (KGSO). 

“As we celebrate our legacy of aircraft manufacturing in North Carolina and our incredible pride in serving our HondaJet customers, we look forward with confidence to the next chapter of Honda skyward mobility,” said Yamasaki, president and CEO of Honda Aircraft. “As we continue on our journey, it is our Honda associates and the Piedmont Triad community partners who will continue to be the key to our success in shaping the future of flight.

“Twenty years after its founding, Honda Aircraft continues to build on a legacy of innovation while pursuing new possibilities. As the company commemorates this milestone, the dream that began in North Carolina continues to take flight.”