Honda HA-420 HondaJet

HA-420 HondaJet
HondaJet in flight at Oshkosh in 2011
Role	Business jet
National origin	Japan United States
Manufacturer	Honda Aircraft Company
First flight	3 December 2003
Introduction	January 2016
Status	Active, In production
Produced	2012–present
Number built	25 (As of 4 January 2017[update])
Unit cost	US$4.5 million (as of May 2015[update])

The Honda HA-420 HondaJet is the first aircraft developed by Honda Aircraft Company. The light business jet was designed in Japan and then developed and manufactured in Greensboro, North Carolina in the United States.

Honda began to study small sized business jets in the late 1980s, using engines from other manufacturers. The Honda SHM-1/MH01 turboprop tested laminar flow wings, and the Honda MH02 was fabricated and assembled at Mississippi State University's Raspet Flight Research Laboratory in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The MH02 was a prototype using carbon fiber/epoxy composite materials and was the first all-composite light business jet to fly. Flight testing on the MH02 continued through 1996, after which the aircraft was shipped to Japan.

Designer Michimasa Fujino sketched the HondaJet in 1997, and the concept was locked in 1999. Testing in the Boeing windtunnel indicated a valid concept in 1999.

A proof-of-concept (but not production-ready) version of the HondaJet first flew on 3 December 2003 at Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro, North Carolina, United States. Honda approved commercial development of the HondaJet in 2004. The HondaJet made its world debut on 28 July 2005, at the annual EAA AirVenture Oshkosh airshow. Honda announced on 25 July 2006 at that year's Airventure that it would commercialize the HondaJet.

The first FAA-conforming (built to Federal Aviation Administration rules) HondaJet achieved its first flight on 20 December 2010. The first flight of the first production HondaJet occurred on 27 June 2014, and it was displayed at that year's AirVenture on 28 July. Four HondaJets had test-flown 2,500 hours as of 2015.

The HA-420 aircraft program itself was plagued by delays. The initial planned certification date was "Late 2010", but in Spring 2009 was delayed by a year. In May 2010, the projected certification date was late 2012. The program was incrementally delayed several more times.