Honda Jet CEO confident in light jet market

摘要

While challenged by engine flight test problems and a struggling economy, the president and CEO of Honda Aircraft remains optimistic that his light jet will be the right airplane at the right time. In an exclusive interview with AOPA Live This Week from the European Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition (EBACE) in Geneva, Switzerland, Michimasa Fujino acknowledged the world economy is quite different than when the proof-of-concept HondaJet first flew in December 2003. But the first flight in mid-May of the fifth conforming airplane is "a big milestone for us, and a first flight is emotional for us, too," he said. The last of the conforming airplanes taking to the air is the beginning of the end of the airplane's long testing program.