Aircraft

The HA-420 HondaJet received FAA type certification in December and promptly entered the light jet market to much excitement and anticipation. Flying senior editor Pia Bergqvist recently got the chance to fly and review the much-hyped airplane for the June issue. Check out pictures of the HA-420’s unique design, luxurious cabin and innovative features.

Dassault Aviation’s new flagship, the Dassault Falcon 8X, achieved European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) certification. FAA certification is expected in the coming weeks, with entry into service planned for this fall. Three aircraft were used in the flight test program, which totaled more than 830 hours on 400 flights. Those airplanes will now be used […]

When Honda Aircraft Company announced it had received FAA type certification for the HA-420 HondaJet on December 9, the company’s president and CEO, Michimasa Fujino, described the document as “the crystal of sweat and tears.” The sign-off was the culmination of decades of hard work. Fujino became involved in Honda’s aircraft program in 1986. The […]

The FAA says the Terrafugia Transition can now be called a light sport aircraft despite the fact that its maximum weight is 370 pounds greater than the standard LSA 1,430-pound limit. Terrafugia petitioned the agency for the exemption to use the LSA label for a street-legal version of the aircraft back in 2014. Although the […]

Charles Bolden says now is the right time to take a serious look at a distributed electric aircraft that, if successful, will create advanced technologies to reduce fuel burn, emissions and aircraft noise. Bolden is administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA’s new X-57 project, nicknamed “Maxwell,” will be the agency’s first dedicated […]

Piper’s M600 single-engine turboprop achieved FAA type certification last week, adding a new model to the Vero Beach, Florida, manufacturer’s lineup that features more power and improved avionics. The $2.853 million M600 features the same Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6-42A engine as the Piper M500, but power has been boosted from 500 to 600 shp, […]

Look for two new Mooney models to make their debut appearances at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh this summer after the Kerrville, Texas-based manufacturer flew the first Ovation Ultra, a version of the original Ultra that will roll out of the factory with an array of upgrades. Mooney chief test pilot Mike Miles flew the new model […]

There seems to be no holding back Embraer’s expansion of its Melbourne, Florida, manufacturing home, as the company opened an expanded Legacy 450/500 business jet production facility on June 2. The site originally opened in 2011 as the final assembly location for the Phenom 100 and 300 family of jets. This week’s ribbon cutting added […]

The second of Mitsubishi’s regional jet test aircraft (MRJ), known as airframe FTA-2, took off from Nagoya for the first time on May 31 and confirmed its basic characteristics and functionality in airspace off the Pacific coast of Japan. “As with the first flight conducted with MRJ’s FTA-1 in November of last year, we had […]

Dassault Aviation, which is celebrating its 100th year in the business, took the opportunity at EBACE in Geneva to provide an update on its Falcon 8X program. Now in the final stages of flight testing, the ultra-long-range trijet is closing in on both EASA and FAA certification, which is expected as soon as this summer. […]