Honda Aircraft have announced the HondaJet program has been held up by delays in delivery of aircraft components from suppliers.
As reported in the current May/June issue of Australian Flying, the personal jet market is on the rise following the demise of the once promising very light jet (VLJ) market. The HA-420 HondaJet was one of the more surprising and recently unveiled of the personal jets already announced, and the first customer delivery was originally slated for later this year before being pushed back to last quarter 2011.
That date has now been pushed back to third quarter 2012, reports www.ainonline.com (AIN).
“Regrettably we’ve experienced delays in some components,” HondaJet spokesman Stephen Keeney told AIN, without identifying the suppliers involved in the latest setback for the program.
The maiden flight of the first design and production-conforming HondaJet is now scheduled for this coming November, with FAA certification expected to follow in late third quarter 2012.
Menelik Solomon, marketing manager at GE Honda Aero Engines, the supplier of the HondJet’s HF-120 engines, said delivery of the first conforming engine is still on track for third quarter of this year but didn’t comment on whether the engine program was a factor in this latest delay of the HondaJet program.
GE Honda Aero expects to use the HF-120 engine on a flight testbed Cessna Citation CJ1 later this year and says the engine will be rated at 2095 pounds of thrust and have a 5000-hour TBO at entry-into-service.
While Honda Aircraft hasn’t officially released order numbers, the company says more than 100 HondaJets are already on order. Curiously, President, CEO, and chief designer Michimasa Fujino said there aren’t any aircraft manufacturers that can survive by building a single model and suggested a HondaJet II may be part of the Honda lineup down the track.
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