The Honda Aircraft Company was officially founded in August 2006, but Honda had been researching the aircraft business since the 1980s. The company wanted to break into the small business jet market and began prototyping aircraft. In the early 1990s, it built an all-composite light business jet called the Honda MH02 at the Mississippi State University Raspet Flight Research Laboratory. It first flew in the early 1990s and continued flight testing through 1996 after it was moved to Japan.

This led to the development of the HondaJet in 1997, led by the founder and legendary designer Michimasa Fujino. This aircraft would go on to become the HA-420 over the next several years. Let’s take a closer look at the history of the legendary HondaJet HA-420 aircraft and some of its unique features.

A brief history of the development of the aircraft

As mentioned earlier, lead designer Fujino began conceptualizing a modern version of the HA-420 in 1997. A full design and concept was completed in 1999. Early development testing on the aircraft started that year at a Boeing wind tunnel, with results solidifying the design and concept.

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Due to the success of the initial testing, Honda Research and Development opened up a facility in the United States for additional testing. In 2000, the company began building its facility at Piedmont Triad International Airport (GSO) in Greensboro, North Carolina. The prototype of the Honda HA-420 conducted its first flight test on December 3, 2003.

However, Honda had still not officially jumped into the aviation industry at this point. Because of this, the lead designer, Fujino, put the initial prototype on display at the EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, in 2005. The demonstration brought considerable interest in the jet and made company executives realize the aircraft’s potential.

Because of this, Honda officially formed Honda Aircraft Company in 2006. The testing and research of the HondaJet would no longer fall under the Honda Research and Development umbrella and would continue as a part of a general aviation company. The founding of Honda Aircraft Company came nearly twenty years after the initial research project began. Fujino would be named Chief Executive Officer of the company as well.

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The formation of the new Honda Aircraft Company allowed for continued expansion into the light business jet market and the eventual commercialization of the company’s first aircraft. The company flew its first aircraft, built according to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rules, on December 20, 2010. Flight testing continued over the years, and the Honda Aircraft Company flew its first production aircraft, the HondaJet, in June 2014.

The FAA officially certified the aircraft in December 2015; Fujino stated that the certification was “the crystal of sweat and tears,” per Flying Mag. It received its European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) certification in 2016 and certification in Japan in 2018. The company began producing aircraft while in the process of certification, so it had already built several aircraft when the certification was awarded. This allowed the aircraft to deliver its first HondaJet in December 2015.

The original HA-420 would develop into several upgraded versions of the aircraft. These upgraded aircraft include the HondaJet Elite, introduced in 2018, and the HondaJet Elite II, certified in 2022.

Notable design features

The HA-420 is one of the most recognizable aircraft in the light business jet category. Perhaps the most notable feature of the light jet is the location of the engines. The HA-420 HondaJet has its engines mounted on two pylons above each wing, not attached to the fuselage like most jets. This increases the amount of room within the cabin due to the lack of a pylon structure in the tailcone. It is also said that the engine locations have reduced wave drag compared to fuselage-mounted engines. The configuration also helps keep the cabin quieter due to the separation between the cabin and the engines.

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The rest of the aircraft resembles a standard light business jet. However, Honda manufactures the aircraft with lightweight materials, including aluminum and carbon fiber, to improve performance and efficiency. The HA-420 also utilizes two GE Honda HF120 turbofan engines. These were created from a partnership between Honda and General Electric and provided over 2,000 pounds of force each.

Per the Honda Aircraft Company, this light business jet can take off from runways just under 3,500 feet long, with a maximum takeoff weight of 10,600 pounds. It can land on runways that are just over 2,500 feet long. The rest of the specifications for the aircraft are as follows:

The cockpit was designed to use the Garmin G3000 glass cockpit system, per Global Elite Aviation. This system utilizes three large touchscreen displays. The cockpit itself is approximately five feet long. The rest of the cabin is just over 12 feet long, five feet wide, and 4.83 feet high. The typical configuration of the HondaJet is to have four or five passengers seated in the cabin. However, the maximum passenger configuration can fit seven passengers, although this requires a passenger to sit in the cockpit, an optional side-facing seat, and a belted lavatory.