HondaJet, A Flying Beauty - In Pictures

By Ganesh

Updated: Friday, May 23, 2014, 9:14 [IST]

Honda, the manufacturer of affordable and fuel efficient passenger cars, motorcycles, ATVs, lawn mowers, engines and humanoid robots, will soon also be called the manufacturer of jet aircrafts.

Honda Aircraft Company is nearing entering completion of their first production jet, the HondaJet - a lightweight private business jet. This is also one of the most handsome looking aircraft in the world of private jets and not to mention, unique.

Here are a few interesting things you should know about the HondaJet, while enjoying some beautiful images the jet aircraft.

The story continues in the next section. Click through the images for more info.

Click through the images to learn more about HondaJet.

Honda has been conducting research and development work on small aircrafts since 1980. But work specifically on the HondaJet began in 2003, with the first production model under production for little over a year now.

Production work on the first HondaJet has neared completion and work on another eight is under various stages of completion.

The GE Honda HF120 is a small turbofan jet engine, developed in collaboration with General Electric with 2050 lb-ft of thrust during take off.

Two of these engines can take the HondaJet to a top speed of 420 knots (about 0.63 Mach or 780 km/h) and to a maximum altitude of 30,000 feet at the rate of 3,990 feet per minute.

The aircraft can takes off with less than 4,000 ft of runway and requires less than 3,000 ft to land.

HondaJet has a unique design among jet aircrafts in its category, wherein the engines are mounted atop pedestals on each wing, instead of the them being on either sides of the fuselage towards the rear.

This unique design is referred to by Honda as Over-The-Wing Engine Mount (OTWEM). The advantages of this engine placement includes a more spacious cabin, noise reduction, and increased fuel efficiency.

HondaJet has 66 cubic feet of luggage - in the nose and aft - made possible by its OTWEM design.

The HondaJet emits less nitrogen dioxide than other light business jets and is in fact, the most fuel efficient in its class.

The HondaJet is among the few aircrafts to have a fuselage built from carbon fiber composites instead of aluminium. The fuselage is created from a cutting-edge combination of co-cured integral structure and honeycomb sandwich structures.

Furthermore, the HondaJet incorporates Natural Laminar Flow (NLF) technology in its design, which improves aerodynamic efficiency. This, combined with OTWEM and the use of carbon composites, makes HondaJet the most advanced jet aircraft in its category, says Honda and one of the most fuel efficient.

The HondaJet falls under the lighweight private jet category. It can carry a maximum of 7 people, including two pilots.

The standard seating configuration is 2+4 with executive seating for four in a classic club configuration.

HondaJet comes with mobile-device-controlled cabin. Passengers can control the cabin's audio, lighting, temperature and electrochromic window shades using smartphones and tablets.

The cockpit uses next generation Garmin G3000 all-glass avionics system with dual touch-screen controllers and three 14-inch landscape high-resolution displays. The user-friendly cockpit enables either single-pilot or dual-pilot operation.

The first HondaJet will be given a new exterior paint scheme of deep pearl green with a gold stripe. The other exterior colours on offer are silver, red, yellow and blue.

"Honda Aircraft Company, along with our worldwide network of dealers and suppliers, are working together to support the seamless transition to customers," said Honda Aircraft Company President and CEO Michimasa Fujino. "Our goal is to have everything ready before the first delivery. We are committed through our network to deliver the best ownership experience from day one."