Honda's Light Business Jet Unveiled For 1st Time In Japan

TOKYO, JAPAN - APR. 23: Honda Motor Co. unveiled Thursday its HondaJet light business aircraft to the media for the first time in Japan, nearly three decades after the automaker started research and development to enter the aviation industry. The HondaJet, painted white and red, landed at Tokyo's Haneda airport in the afternoon, and was showcased to the media inside a hangar. The first delivery of the jet, currently under development in the United States, is expected in the next few months. With two engines on top of the wings, the roughly 13-meter-long plane boasts energy efficiency and can fly at a cruising speed of 778 kilometers per hour, Honda said. The aircraft can seat up to seven people, including the pilot. "Our HondaJet is the world's most advanced small business jet in terms of energy efficiency and flight comfort," Honda Aircraft Co. President Michimasa Fujino said during a ceremony. The company has received orders for more than 100 HondaJets in the United States and Europe. Each carries a price tag of $4.5 million, according to Honda. After the Honda founder Soichiro Honda (1906-1991) expressed his vision for entering the aviation industry in the 1960s, Honda started research in 1986. The first HondaJet for mass production successfully made its maiden flight last June in the United States.