Honda Jet: A Car Company Built The Best-Selling Jet In Its Class
Flight Path
7,172 views
A car company with zero aviation experience built the best-selling light jet in the world — with its engines in a place everyone said they didn't belong.
In 1986, Honda secretly sent four engineers to a Mississippi research lab to learn how to build airplanes. One of them, Michimasa Fujino, started by sanding composite molds. A decade later, he woke up in the middle of the night and sketched a jet on the back of a calendar page — with its engines mounted above the wings, a layout the aviation industry had written off as a drag-producing dead end. Honda built it anyway, along with its own jet engine. After 29 years, more than 3,000 hours of flight testing, and 2 million pages of FAA documentation, the HondaJet was certified in 2015 — then became the most-delivered jet in its class five years in a row.
Every date, dollar figure, and delivery number in this video is drawn from verified sources, including Honda Aircraft's own published history and FAA certification records.
⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 The Unconventional Design That Defied Aviation Norms
1:05 From Automotive Roots To Secret Aviation Dreams
4:40 The Midnight Sketch That Changed Everything
9:18 The Long Road To FAA Certification
15:45 Scaling The Vision For A New Category Of Jet
If you're into deep-dive business histories of the companies that built American aviation, subscribe — new documentary every week.
#Aviation #AviationHistory #BusinessHistory #GeneralAviation #HondaJet
3 Comments
I fly 767's for a tiny cargo airline out of Memphis that nobody has ever heard of and shall remain nameless (Fedex). The only place I have ever seen these truly cool airplanes is in Greensboro, North Carolina where they are built. I fly all the time all over the country (Sacramento as I type this...) and I have yet to see one of these.
This airplane is very clever. Here's a question for you: I fly a 767 with the GE CF6-80 engines mounted to the wings. But have you ever seen a business/private jet with wing mounted engines? No you have NOT. That's because they are always rear mounted on these airplanes. Why? Because the airplane looks less impressive this way. You see, private jets owned by companies are NOT viewed favorably by shareholders. Yet these large corporations really do need these airplanes for productivity and the ability to go anywhere at any time. Thus, small jets like this are always built with rear mounted engines.
In case you think I am talking out my ass, this has been proven to be true in psychological studies. People perceive airplanes with the engines at the rear to be smaller.
Problem, and why you do not see airliners built this way: When you mount the engines to the fuselage, the considerable weight of the engines is now transferred to the fuselage itself, and the center section of the wing, specifically the wing spars now has to bear their weight. Which means that the wing has to be stronger and HEAVIER.
With wing mounted engines you do not have this issue. In fact, mounting the engines to the wings actually makes the wing stronger. They act as mass balances, meaning that when the airframe encounters turbulence, their mass and inertia tends to prevent the wing from flexing. Meaning the wing can be built far lighter.
-Enter Honda, who apparently remembered the VFW-Fokker 614, a West German regional airliner from the 1960's with wing mounted engines....But mounted to the top of the wing. Honda improved on this design and did it in a clever way: They angled the engine pylons backward so that it looks like the engines are tail mounted, despite that not being the case. This...This is thinking outside the box folks! Outstanding!
Honda Jet: A Car Company Built The Best-Selling Jet In Its Class
Flight Path
7,172 views
A car company with zero aviation experience built the best-selling light jet in the world — with its engines in a place everyone said they didn't belong.
In 1986, Honda secretly sent four engineers to a Mississippi research lab to learn how to build airplanes. One of them, Michimasa Fujino, started by sanding composite molds. A decade later, he woke up in the middle of the night and sketched a jet on the back of a calendar page — with its engines mounted above the wings, a layout the aviation industry had written off as a drag-producing dead end. Honda built it anyway, along with its own jet engine. After 29 years, more than 3,000 hours of flight testing, and 2 million pages of FAA documentation, the HondaJet was certified in 2015 — then became the most-delivered jet in its class five years in a row.
Every date, dollar figure, and delivery number in this video is drawn from verified sources, including Honda Aircraft's own published history and FAA certification records.
⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 The Unconventional Design That Defied Aviation Norms
1:05 From Automotive Roots To Secret Aviation Dreams
4:40 The Midnight Sketch That Changed Everything
9:18 The Long Road To FAA Certification
15:45 Scaling The Vision For A New Category Of Jet
If you're into deep-dive business histories of the companies that built American aviation, subscribe — new documentary every week.
#Aviation #AviationHistory #BusinessHistory #GeneralAviation #HondaJet