Honda, Embraer make first business jet deliveries

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.