Award To Celebrate the Design and Development of the HondaJet

Michimasa Fujino has been awarded the 2024 Daniel Guggenheim Medal for technical innovation and leadership in conceiving, designing, and bringing HondaJet to a leading position in the business jet market. 

Fujino will receive the prestigious award during the 2024 AIAA Awards Gala on Wednesday, 15 May, at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, DC.

The Daniel Guggenheim Medal was established in 1929 to honor innovators who make notable achievements in the advancement of aeronautics. Its first recipient was Orville Wright. The medal is jointly sponsored by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), SAE International (SAE), and the Vertical Flight Society (VFS).

“It is an honor and a privilege to nominate Mr. Fujino for the Daniel Guggenheim Medal. His visionary leadership and meticulous engineering have created the most advanced very light jet in the world. His innovative Over-the-Wing Engine Mount design has set a new standard for performance and efficiency in the aviation industry. Mr. Fujino is a true pioneer and a deserving recipient of this prestigious award,” said Mark Ofsthun, Senior Manager, Methods & F&DT, Honda Aircraft Company, and nominator.

Michimasa Fujino, retired founding president and CEO of Honda Aircraft Company, was responsible for the design and development, certification, production, sales, and service of the HondaJet. Fujino joined Honda R&D in 1984 and led aeronautical research of aircraft configuration design, aerodynamics, flight control, avionics system, advanced composite structure, and aeroelasticity. He became project leader of HondaJet in 1997 and developed HondaJet with advanced technologies. In 2006, Fujino founded Honda Aircraft Company and focused on the dual tasks of obtaining type certification of the new aircraft and creating a new company and organization for aircraft development, certification, and manufacturing. He also established a worldwide sales and service network for HondaJet. With his aeronautical breakthroughs, Fujino’s clean sheet design was proven to enhance aircraft performance and fuel efficiency and provide exceptional comfort for passengers. HondaJet became the best-selling business jet in its class.

Fujino has received international recognition for his pioneering contributions to aeronautical research and design. He has been the recipient of numerous international awards and distinctions, including the Elmer A. Sperry Award, AIAA Reed Aeronautics Award, ICAS Award for Innovation in Aeronautics, SAE Clarence L. (Kelly) Johnson Aerospace Vehicle Design and Development Award, AIAA Aircraft Design Award, Prime Minister Award of Japan Industry and induction to the Living Legends of Aviation. In addition, Fujino has been recognized in the industrial design field and received the Good Design Gold Award and the Japan Industrial Designers’ Association Design Museum Award. His extensive research and theories on aircraft configuration design, advanced aerodynamics, and aeroelasticity have been published in technical and academic journals, and he holds several patents for aircraft design.

Fujino holds a Bachelor of Science and Doctorate in aeronautical engineering from the University of Tokyo. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), SAE International, and the Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS). He is also an international member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE).

Past recipients of the Guggenheim Medal are some of the greatest names in aerospace, including Holt Ashley, Lawrence Bell, William Boeing, James Doolittle, Donald Douglas, Charles Stark Draper, Hugh Dryden, Robert Goddard, Jerome Hunsaker, Theodore von Kármán, Charles Lindbergh, Glenn Martin, Frank Robinson, Burt Rutan, Igor Sikorsky, and Walter Vincenti, among many others. 

FMI: www.AIAA.org