Honda’s first light business jet continues to undergo testing at the company’s Greensboro, North Carolina facility. Honda Dealer Maryland confirmed that in its latest tests, the HondaJet was able to achieve a maximum operating altitude of 43,000 ft. This milestone comes soon after the jet’s maximum speed of 489 mph was also achieved.
Honda Dealer Chicago explained that the HondaJet maximum-operating-altitude performance shows the aircraft’s ability to reach customers’ performance standards. It also is an important performance parameter for the delivery aircraft.
“We are very encouraged by the achievement of these important performance milestones at this early phase of the HondaJet flight test program,” said Michimasa Fujino, Honda Aircraft Company President & CEO. “Our flight test data indicate that the aircraft is performing as expected, and our team continues to work hard to realize additional performance milestones as we move forward.”
A number of FAA-conforming HondaJets are being produced for additional testing. Phoenix Honda said each plane will be used for testing specific areas of flight testing, including stress and extensive fatigue testing, the testing of various load conditions, and other tests to supplement the company’s certification efforts.
As Honda moves through the certification program, the company is simultaneously working to equip and man it’s the HondaJet production facility, which was recently completed on the Honda Aircraft Company’s Greensboro campus.
“In order to maximize the effectiveness of our flight test program and to support an accelerated certification process, we will add a sixth conforming aircraft (F4) to our certification fleet,” said Fujino. “This test aircraft will take flight in spring 2012 and will support cabin systems testing, as well as functions and reliability testing. With a total of six aircraft planned to support the certification process, we believe we will have optimal resources to meet both our flight test program needs and our certification schedule.”
You must log in to post a comment.