Gizmodo
Honda has been working for over 20 years on its HondaJet, and now has decided to go into business with Piper Aircraft to sell the six-passenger (plus one pilot) mini-jet by 2010. The company says it will start taking orders this Fall for the jet (seen here in its custom Gizmodo livery), which will cost somewhere between $1.5 million and $4 million.
This little pocket rocket has already flown at 43,000 feet at a speed of 450mph. And in the grand tradition of Honda automobiles, it's 5% more fuel-efficient than its competitors, according to Michimasa Fujino, a vice president of Honda Research and Development Americas, who has led the jet's development. Plus, the jet's wing-mounted engines makes its interior the roomiest in its class.
Looks like just the right size to fit our intrepid Gizmodo team, taking us on necessary adventures far and wide. Note to self: order one asap.
Honda And Piper Take To The Skies On A Wing, A Prayer And A HondaJet [Jalopnik]
Honda Adding a Jet, a Six-Passenger Model, to Its Lineup [New York Times]
Comments
If this pans out, it's going to change the face of the corporate jet landscape. The real significance of this is in time-shares or corporate jet membership companies. A ten percent time share in a $2mm model would be looking at $200,000 buy-in, plus fuel and maintanence costs: much lower than what it currently costs to be bad-ass enough to have your name on the passenger list.
It'll still have the Honda emblem on the nose, right?
I mean, what's the point of having a Honda if you can't show it off?
Honda actually claims 1/3 better fuel efficiency than other planes in its class...
Can't wait to slap an Type-R sticker on it . . .
you can show your honda off the way everyone else does:
1> Add oversized spoiler
2> Put tiny tires on it
3> Remove all badges, tho don't bother to bondo in the holes
Ofcourse, it helps if its about 10 years old, with the std crap paint that's fadded to oblivion, and some part hanging on by a thread.
You forgot the white dash and yellow window tinting, coffee-can exhaust and 2 16" subs that make the glued-on wing rattle...
Yet none of you haters will ever get to be in an episode of "Pimp My Plane"...
you're right! I *love* it when they rattle...
We need a photoshop contest...
Nice branding on the plane Gizmodo! Can I take a ride when you pick up your new plane?
Actually, Very Light Jets are hot on the market right now, so a new entry is always nice. They're a new category of jet that's only existed for a few years now, but their relatively low cost (~$2million, compared to roughly $20-odd million for a LearJet) is making them popular among the not-as-rich-but-still-damn-rich crowd. And of course, probably piloted by their owners rather than a corporate pilot. Timesharing these would make them even more accessible to smaller companies.
(It turns out that a corporate jet can actually help save money rather than just company bling - if you have executives flying everywhere, using a company jet and pilot saves time (no need to wait endlessly at the gate, or hours if a meeting runs over and new tickets have to be purchased. Some people's time is so important that the cost of jet+pilot is minor compared to the cost of 6 execs sitting in airports for half a day for days on end. Or the ability to simply have meetings all in the same day versus over a week. VLJs will seriously eat into this market as companies timeshare a VLJ.)
There are several new entrants coming out in the VLJ market. I'm personally looking forward for the Javelin.
Man, those engine struts on the wings make me wig, though!
-It seems like those nacelles would make nice hood ornaments when they break off and plummet to earth onto ground-based Honda commuters. ---perhaps it's just my generalized anxiety disorder kicking in.
...Well, at least Fiat, Ford or GM don't make jets; yet.
-also! -It's past the year 2000. -Where the f$*k are all the Flying Cars!!!
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