PRESA ACURA & HONDA > Stiri limba engleza
Honda enters the jet market: Great timing?
tokyodream:
Honda enters the jet market: Great timing?
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101503761
Honda's first business jet is set for take off next year. CNBC's Kaori Enjoji speaks to Michimasa Fujino, President & CEO at Honda Aircraft, about the HondaJet and visits the production facility in the U.S.
Honda is used to making vehicles capable of carrying up to six passengers, but next year one of its products is slightly different.
For the first time, Honda will be selling an aircraft: the HondaJet.
The plane is dubbed by its makers "the fastest, highest-flying, quietest, and most fuel-efficient jet in its class," with particular emphasis given to the Over-The-Wing Engine Mount (OTWEM) design.
As the acronym explains, Honda has placed the engine over the plane's wing, thus reducing aerodynamic drag while at the same time reducing cabin sound and freeing up more space for passengers. It is priced at $4.5 million.
"This is a true breakthrough technology, and this is a key technology that distinguishes HondaJet from other competitors," Michimasa Fujino, president and CEO of Honda Aircraft Company, told CNBC.
The jet's flight path
Fujino spoke to CNBC about the company's long path to jet production. He joined Honda in 1984, at first working on the automobile division until "one day my boss came to me at lunch time and he told me that you go to the airplane project."
He was sent to Mississippi in 1986 to learn how to build a plane from scratch. After ten years, he had his "eureka" moment.
"One day I went to bed and in the middle of the night I thought of a new idea. You know if I could put the engine over the wing I might be able to satisfy, or meet the requirement of performance or comfort or high speed or efficiency," Fujino said. He jotted his idea on the back of a calendar.
The HondaJet is now in the final stages of the U.S. Federal Aviation Authority's complex and lengthy certification process, with final approval expected in the first quarter of 2015.
This revolutionary design was not an easy one to embrace over a decade ago by a company not known for its aviation and dealing with a difficult economic situation.
Takeo Fukui, the former president of Honda Motor, told CNBC: "The nineties was a very tough time for us, it was when the yen was super strong. But we decided to allocate what little resources we had and invest it for our future."
He added: "What makes Honda, Honda? We add value to customers around the world through personal mobility. We wanted to be involved in all kinds of personal mobility. Two-wheelers. Cars...These are all two-dimensional. But what I really wanted for our future was in the third dimension. That was the HondaJet."
Worth the wait?
As excited as Honda is about its latest product, it is still entering an unfamiliar sector, and the very light jet market was hard hit by the recession.
Honeywell International, which produces aerospace systems for a wide variety of customers, forecasts that up to 9,250 new business jets will be delivered in the next decade, but large-cabin jets will account for more than 55 percent of those purchases.
Michel Merluzeau, managing partner at G2 Solutions, said the very light jet market "was the hardest hit by the recession. We forecast about 1,000 deliveries in the personal light jet/very light jet market between 2014 and 2020."
However, HondaJet has already secured 100 orders and Fujino expects the very light jet market to see about 400 sales per year in the next few years.
Merluzeau said the HondaJet was an interesting product but added: "Overall, we believe that Honda will be able to capture about five percent of annual deliveries by 2020, rising thereafter. We expect that Honda will deliver about 300 aircraft by 2020."
Most analysts agreed that what Honda had going for it was its name and prestige, which will hopefully lend it some clout when competing against its competitors such as Cessna, Embraer and Beechcraft.
(Read more: Watch: Best selling private jets)
Steve Varsano, founder of the luxury private aircraft company The Jet Business (based in London) said: "Most importantly, the great pedigree in terms of the Honda name, financial backing, support and service is a real help to get the initial attention of the marketplace, but I don't believe it will do anything for selling more aircraft, except maybe getting a meeting with a potential buyer that may otherwise might not have taken a meeting."
Still, while this is a difficult market for a newcomer, Wayne Plucker, the North America director for Aerospace and Defense at Frost & Sullivan argued that this could be great timing from Honda.
"When the market crumpled, the people who were buying these size of jets -- the entrepreneurs, the day traders -- they were the people who lost their shirts. So the market for this very light category of jet evaporated overnight. Now it's starting to come back, probably with a little different clientele, a little longer term wealth, and Honda's timing is pretty good because this market is coming back."
tokyodream:
http://www.theverge.com/2014/5/21/5735796/honda-is-making-a-luxury-jet-with-really-weird-engines
Honda is making a luxury jet with really weird engines
To most, Honda is a maker of the everycar — affordable, safe, practical, fuel efficient road transportation that neither excites nor offends. To some, it's also a maker of motorcycles. To a few, it's the maker of Asimo, the perennially entertaining humanoid robot that makes appearances at trade shows.
No one would peg Honda as a maker of futuristic jet aircraft, though.
The Japanese auto giant has been quietly researching small jets since the late 1980s, debuting the HondaJet as a multimillion-dollar experiment over a decade ago in 2003. The six-passenger bullet cruises at 420 knots — about 0.63 Mach — and gets power from a pair of specially designed turbofans developed through a joint venture with General Electric.
What makes the HondaJet really unusual, though (besides the fact that it's being made by the same company that makes the Civic) is a unique engine mount that gives the plane its trademark appearance. Where most jets of this size have engines mounted on either side of the rear of the fuselage, the HondaJet's HF120 turbofans rest on pedestals that rise from the wings. The advantage, Honda notes, is that the configuration frees up significant additional space inside the cabin. As a bonus, it also just looks downright sci-fi.
Honda just announced this week that the first production HondaJet is now in final assembly. The road to this point hasn't been an easy one — the high-tech transport has been beset with delays, most recently due to an engine failure during testing — but the company says it's tracking for FAA certification in the first quarter of 2015.
Start saving your pennies: the aircraft will command around $4.5 million when it goes on sale.
=============
http://myfox8.com/2014/05/19/honda-unveils-production-model-of-new-jet/
Honda unveils production model of new jet
The HondaJet aircraft remains on pace for its long-awaited debut in the first quarter, with Honda Aircraft Co. revealing the first production model today, according to the Winston-Salem Journal.
The company announced several achievements and milestones for the jet at the European Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition in Geneva, Switzerland. HondaJet is a light business jet designed to carry six to seven people.
The aircraft is being designed and built at a 600,000-square-foot facility on its 130-acre site near Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro. Among the company’s operations are customer service, research and development center, and a production facility.
Earlier this year, the company surpassed the 1,000 employee mark locally.
Honda said the jet is ready for ground tests following the recent delivery of the first set of GE Honda HF120 engines.
There are nine aircraft on the final assembly lines, with four aircraft with their wings and empennages attached. The first test flight is projected to take place this summer.
“Honda Aircraft Co.’s most important goals are achieving Federal Aviation Administration Type Certification and delivering the first customer aircraft,” Michimasa Fujino, the company’s president and chief executive, said in a statement.
The company said in December it had entered its final stage of testing with the FAA.
“Our total effort is focused on reaching these much anticipated milestones in the first quarter,” Fujino said.
Anthony Piazza, vice president of administration for American Honda Motor Co., has said Honda’s capital investment in Greensboro is more than $140 million since it established Honda Aircraft in 2006.
“The HondaJet production line is maturing with efficient and robust processes in place to build high quality aircraft,” Fujino said. “From handheld tablets that deliver worker instructions to an automatic guided cart to pick up and deliver parts, we continue to integrate the latest technology into our production process to create an efficient workflow.”
The company revealed another paint scheme, a deep pearl green with a gold stripe. The jet now features five exterior color options, along with silver, red, yellow and blue.
The company said testing has commenced with FAA pilot participation. Testing includes: stall speed, stall characteristics and stall warning system; wheels, tires and brake control system tests; flap actuation system and speed brake operation throughout the flight envelope; hydraulic system control tests; and in-flight fire suppression system.
Also required by the FAA is full-scale fatigue testing. The ground structural test program has completed more than 2,000 cycles – the equivalent of more than five years of use for typical business jet operators. Testing examined the airframe’s fatigue strength under simulated in-flight operations derived from theoretical load spectra and mission profiles.
The company said Fokker Aerostructures will supply the tail assembly for the jet. Honda said Fokker was selected based on its expertise in the manufacturing of tail sections for business jets with a global supply chain network.
Honda, working with FlightSafety International, is developing flight and maintenance training curriculums with classes scheduled to begin later this year in Greensboro. The first flight simulator for flight training is complete.
==============
tokyodream:
http://www.thetimesnews.com/news/top-news/faa-working-to-complete-certification-for-honda-aero-facility-1.323745
FAA working to complete certification for Honda Aero facility
The Federal Aviation Administration is working to complete plant production certification for the Honda Aero Inc. facility in Burlington, Honda Aero Vice President of Plant Operations Tony Brandewie said Thursday.
Brandewie expects the process to be completed by the end of the year. After the plant is certified, production for the HF 120 engine will be transferred from a facility in Lynn, Mass., to Burlington.
In December, the FAA awarded airworthiness certification to the HondaJet engine, allowing production to begin. Brandewie said GE Honda Aero Engines this month delivered two HF 120 engines produced in Lynn to the Honda Aircraft Co.
Honda Aircraft announced May 19 that the first HondaJet has been produced and is ready for ground tests.
“Honda Aircraft Company’s most important goals are achieving Federal Aviation Administration Type Certification and delivering the first customer aircraft,” Honda Aircraft President and CEO Michimasa Fujino said. “Our total effort is focused on reaching these much-anticipated milestones in the first quarter of 2015.”
The HondaJet’s first flight is anticipated this summer. The production schedule is to have 10 aircraft on the final assembly line in June. Brandewie said the HondaJet’s body and wings are being produced in Greensboro.
Honda Aero’s site in Burlington is located on 90 acres at the Burlington-Alamance Regional Airport. The engine manufacturing facility will build the HF 120 engine developed by Honda and GE, which will power the HondaJet.
Work on engine prototypes began in 1986 and included the HF 118, the engine that powered the first test flight of the HondaJet in December 2003.
In July 2007, company officials announced that Honda Aero would initially invest $27 million in construction and equipment at the Burlington site and employ 70 workers within a year of the start of production at the 58,400-square-foot plant.
tokyodream:
http://www.itemlive.com/business/ge-lynn-builds-engines-for-honda-s-first-jet/article_95c2ab50-eac2-11e3-b10a-0019bb2963f4.html
GE Lynn builds engines for Honda’s first jet
LYNN — The engines for one of Honda’s latest products is now in full production at the GE plant in Lynn, only you won’t see them driving down the street anytime soon, or ever for that matter.
That’s because the new engine is for what Honda has dubbed the “Civic of the Sky,” the HondaJet. The four- or five-passenger jet is Honda’s first ever plane, and the company describes it as the “most advanced light business jet.”
While the $4.5 million HondaJet will be entirely manufactured in the U.S., GE is designing and building the engines only, which will be shipped to Honda’s Burlington, N.C. plant where the planes will be assembled.
GE’s agreement to design and build the HF120 engine marks the first joint venture between the two industrial giants, in which the two are equal partners. The engine has been in development for a decade, and is now powering four test models of the HondaJet.
The HF120 has completed 10,000 hours of testing before full-scale production began. Experts need to confirm that the engine will be able to run normally in freezing cold, wet, heat or any other conditions that it may run into while being flown. The FAA has approved the engine for use in the U.S., and it is expected to be approved by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) by the end of the year.
The HF120 engine is the smallest engine being produced at the Lynn plant, with a fan diameter of only 18.5 inches. By comparison, GE’s largest jet engine, the GE9X, has a fan diameter of 132 inches.
A GE spokesman told The Item on Monday that the HF120 engine is so advanced because it is made up of new composite materials that lower the weight of the engine, while increasing its reliability and durability. This means that it only needs to be serviced every 5,000 hours, which is quite a long time in between service stops.
The HondaJet will have a maximum speed of 483 mph and range of 1,300 miles, according to GE. Other advanced features on the HondaJet include mounting the engines on the wings rather than the fuselage, which decreases noise levels and increases the amount of usable space in the cabin making for a more comfortable and spacious ride. The engines aren’t the only aspect of the plane with space-age composite materials either, the fuselage is made from a carbon-fiber composite that reduces weight while still retaining strength.
Unlike their new partner Honda, GE’s River Works plant in Lynn has been building jet engines since the mid 1940s.
The GE Lynn plant primarily builds engines for military jets and helicopters, including the F414, and engines for the U.S. Navy’s F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighter jet. Another military engine being built in the Lynn plant is the T700 Turboshaft that powers the military’s Black Hawk and Apache helicopters. Military jet engine contracts will keep the Lynn plant busy through at least 2025.
tokyodream:
http://www.wfmynews2.com/story/money/business/2014/08/14/honda-aircraft-hondajet-dealer-southeast-us-8-states/14069895/
Honda Aircraft Names New HondaJet Dealer For Southeast U.S.
GREENSBORO, N.C.-- Honda Aircraft Company has announced a new HondaJet dealer for the Southeast United States. According to a news release from the company, Banyan Air Service Inc., based at the Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport will provide HondaJet sales and service for the eight-state territory. The states are: Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee and South Carolina.
"Banyan Air Service has an outstanding reputation for providing exemplary customer satisfaction through aircraft sales and service. We are proud to have a partner who shares Honda's commitment in making customers our highest priority," said Honda Aircraft President and CEO Michimasa Fujino. "Banyan Air Service will complement and further strengthen the HondaJet dealer network."
BACKGROUND: Banyan Air Service was established in 1979 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The company has more than 30 years' experience serving the general aviation market, and its facility is a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and European Aviation Safety Administration (EASA) certified repair station. The company provides 24-hour Fixed Based Operation (FBO) services as well as heavy aircraft maintenance, full avionics capabilities and turbine engine services. Banyan Air Service's maintenance division has been recognized as an FAA Diamond Award recipient, and the company is consistently ranked by the industry as one of the country's top FBOs.
"We are excited to represent the HondaJet in the Southeast U.S.," said Banyan Air Service President Don Campion. "Banyan Air Service looks forward to providing exceptional aviation services to HondaJet customers."
For more information about the world's most advanced light jet, visit www.hondajet.com .
Navigare
[#] Pagina următoare
Du-te la versiunea completă