The HondaJet is on hold while engineers scurry to solve a problem with its engines.
As if its problems with passenger car production and poor reviews for the latest Civic weren’t enough of a headache, Honda has been hammered again – though this time on the aircraft side of its business.
Problems with the new engine it has developed will force at least a one-year delay in the first delivery of its much-anticipated HondaJet business jet.
The problem is that ice ingested by the engine during ground simulations resulted in “very minor damage” and, perhaps worse, a slight loss in thrust, revealed Michimasa Fujino, the president of Honda Aircraft Co., during an industry conference in Las Vegas.
The latest delay means the HondaJet won’t take the skies with its first customer until mid-2013, a delay from the planned third-quarter launch this year. And that was a setback from earlier expectations. Problems with suppliers shot down an earlier date of 2010.
“I regret that we have to convey this message today,” said Fujino, who noted customers had already been advised of the latest delay. So far, Honda Aircraft has taken 100 orders.
The news means that Honda and its engine partner, General Electric, will have to do some redesign work on the engine, dubbed the HF120, before it can be certified. Only then will tests get underway on the BusinessJet itself.
The company has spent more than a decade on the project, the first rough sketch of the jet made in 1997, with Honda Aircraft formally incorporated in 2006.
The HondaJet will carry a price tag starting at $4.5 million. It will seat up to 2 crew and 6 passengers depending on configuration. The project has involved an estimated $1 billion investment, including $120 million for a production site in North Carolina.
The delay actually comes at a reasonably good time considering the slowdown in corporate aviation that followed the 2008 global economic meltdown. Honda still hopes to have the new jetin the air by the time the market recovers – though further delays, analysts warn, could lead customers to cancel out and shift to other established business jet manufacturers.