Greensboro, North Carolina-based Honda Aircraft Company has achieved the final level of U.S. aircraft certification for the HA-420 HondaJet, snagging the coveted FAA Production Certificate for the light twinjet. The new approval allows the company to produce, flight test and issue airworthiness certificates to its HondaJets, a process that has previously required some involvement by the FAA.
Honda Aircraft received the FAA Type Certificate for the airplane on December 9 of last year. Since that hurdle was reached, the company has delivered 13 HondaJets to dealers and customers, said Aleasha Vucannon, Honda Aircraft’s manager of corporate communications and marketing. The targeted production rate remains at three to four airplanes per month. Honda Aircraft does not disclose order numbers, but Will Cutter, Chairman and CEO of Phoenix, Arizona-based Cutter Aviation, the Honda Aircraft dealer for southern California, Arizona, southern Nevada, New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma, has reported good sales numbers and high reliability for the HondaJet after putting the airplane through a busy demo tour in the Southwest during the past few months.
The HondaJet is a six-seat light jet powered by two GE Honda Aero Engines HF120 engines, each producing 1,997 pounds of thrust, mounted on top of the airplane’s natural laminar flow wings. The airplane is capable of climbing to 43,000 feet and has a top speed of 420 knots in cruise.
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