HondaJet – Honda’s Futuristic Luxury Jet Is An Eyeful

If you know Honda as the manufacturer of everyday affordable cars that are not just practical and safe but also fuel-efficient for road transportation, you need to get your facts right. Honda has also produced some great motorcycles, apart from this whole other mode of transportation that you will be enlightened about.

Read Also: Honda Brings A Bike Out Of The Pages

The Asimo Robot was a fascinating creation by Honda, making appearances at trade shows because of its appealing entertainment value. Honda’s best creation yet, though, comes in the form of futuristic jet aircraft the likes of which you’ve never seen before.

Honda’s History With Jets

The HondaJet was the Japanese auto company’s first attempt at a multi-million dollar experiment, and it was debuted in 2003. In fact, Honda has been extremely interested in small jets since the late 1980s, secretly researching the aircrafts.

The Honda Luxury Jet though, is exceptional in that it has a cruise speed of about 0.063 Mach, and cruises at 420 knots. A bullet in all its senses, the jet’s power is derived from two turbofans that have been developed and specially designed by General Electric through a joint venture.

Why It’s Unusual

The most extraordinary feature of the HondaJet is definitely its unusual mount for the engines, giving it a rather exceptional appearance.

Engines On Pedestals

Resting on pedestals rising from the wings, the HondaJet’s HF120 turbofans are a replacement for engines that are generally mounted on either side of the rear of the fuselage like conventional jets.

How does this help, you ask? Having a configuration like this for a jet opens up a lot of extra space in the cabin, and also makes the whole ensemble look like it came right out of a sci-fi movie.

Final Assembly

The first production model for the HondaJet is in final assembly, according to announcements made by the company. Getting there wasn’t very easy though, because the testing stages returned a lot of engine failure problems for the hi-tech transport. FAA certification for the aircraft will be achieved by the first quarter of 2015.