Marks One-Year Anniversary Of First Flight For First Conforming
Aircraft
Honda Aircraft Company announced on the one-year anniversary of
flight testing of its first FAA design-conforming HondaJet
aircraft, that its third conforming aircraft, referred to as
“F2,” joined flight test and has been conducting
extensive flight testing since its first flight on November 18,
2011. The company says this milestone marks important
progress toward the HondaJet’s certification.
The F2 aircraft’s first flight test began with engine
startup at 2:04 pm Eastern Time and lift-off at 2:21, on November
18, 2011, from Honda Aircraft Company’s world headquarters at
Greensboro’s Piedmont Triad International Airport.
The team completed a variety of checks in this first flight,
including: takeoff and climb; landing gear operation; flap
operations; aircraft handling; air data system checks with
instrumentation; and an Instrument Landing System approach using
the flight director. Overall, the aircraft performed quite
well, according to the pilots and telemetry teams. Since this
first flight, Honda Aircraft has expanded F2’s performance
envelope as the aircraft has begun its test mission work in
earnest.
"The first flight of a flight test aircraft is an important
milestone for an aircraft certification program, and the fact that
we achieved F2’s first flight shortly after receiving its
engines illustrates our team’s preparation and
readiness,” said Michimasa Fujino, President and CEO of Honda
Aircraft Company. "F2’s first flight was the result of
extensive planning, hard work and execution by many teams and
individuals across our organization and our supply chain partner
network. The aircraft’s performance is as expected and flying
in the aircraft is exhilarating.”
The first FAA-conforming HondaJet, F1, which flew for the first
time on December 20, 2010, has already achieved key benchmarks that
meet or exceed the aircraft’s designed performance
goals. In March, Honda Aircraft reported the aircraft
achieved a maximum speed of 425 KTAS (489 mph) at 30,000 feet,
surpassing the company’s performance commitment of 420
KTAS. The aircraft has since achieved a climb rate of 4,000
feet per minute, beating its target of 3,990 FPM, and a maximum
operating altitude of 43,000 feet.
“While the flight test aircraft are highly visible and
vital to our certification program, our structural test aircraft
also are just as essential to Honda Aircraft’s certification
program,“ continued Mr. Fujino. “In 2011, we made
major progress on FAA structural component tests and entire
aircraft structural tests with the second conforming aircraft, ST1,
and we successfully completed all limit load tests for the aircraft
structure.”
Honda Aircraft plans to begin flying two additional flight test
aircraft, F3 and F4, in 2012. The company also plans to begin
structural testing with additional structural test aircraft in
2012.