Three years after Honda announced its plans to produce an eVTOL aircraft for intercity travel, the Japanese carmaker is apparently preparing to fly its first prototype.
While Honda has kept its eVTOL program under tight wraps, FAA records indicate that the U.S. air safety regulator recently granted an exemption to Honda Research Institute (HRI) that would allow the company to fly a subscale prototype experimentally for research and development purposes.
The FAA’s letter of exemption, dated October 30, refers to the prototype as the “R&D subscale model test vehicle N241RX electrically powered vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) unmanned aircraft system” weighing at least 55 pounds (25 kilograms).
Aircraft specifications that were previously disclosed describe the Honda eVTOL air taxi as having eight propellers for vertical lift and two propellers mounted on the rear for forward propulsion. It also suggests that the aircraft will have a hybrid propulsion system that employs a gas turbine generator. According to Honda, the hybrid-electric aircraft would offer a range of 250 miles (400 kilometers).
HRI is Honda’s North American R&D branch, where scientists and engineers devise “innovative solutions to complex problems with direct applications to Honda’s current and future technology roadmap,” according to the company’s website. HRI has research facilities across the U.S., and its aerospace engineering division is based in California’s San Luis Obispo County.
The FAA addressed its letter of exemption to HRI flight test engineer Justin Nevitt at the company’s San Luis Obispo office. Before joining HRI in 2023, Nevitt spent seven years with Gulfstream as a flight test engineer and airplane performance engineer.
The FAA exemption limits operations of the prototype to daytime flights over “predetermined, uninhabited, segregated and private or controlled-access property,” and the aircraft must remain within the visual line of sight of the pilot in command.
In its decision, the FAA cited a “materially similar decision” it issued in 2021 when granting an exemption to Kiwi Technologies and Guardian Agriculture for the flight-testing of an electric crop-spraying drone.
HRI has not yet announced a timeframe for the first flight tests. The FAA exemption will remain in effect until Oct. 31, 2026.
Meanwhile, at least two other automotive giants are also staking their claim on the urban air mobility market. Supernal, owned by Korean car maker Hyundai, is preparing to fly a full-scale demonstrator of its eVTOL air taxi in 2025. Toyota has partnered with California-based eVTOL developer Joby Aviation on the development and production of its aircraft, which is expected to be among the first to enter service in the U.S.
Honda may not be the first automotive group to produce an eVTOL air taxi, but it does have prior experience certifying aircraft through its HondaJet business. “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,” the company states on its website. “Moreover, Honda will make a great use of its expertise in lightweight structures and production technologies unique only to aircraft.”