The past few years have been tough on the light jet sector, with several programs being put on hold or abandoned, but the slow but sure development of the HondaJet has been seemingly unaffected by the economic turbulence of late. In its typically slow and determined fashion, Honda Aircraft waited a month to announce the first flight of the third conforming test aircraft. The plane first flew (video here) on Nov. 18 but Honda didn’t announce it until Monday.
Two of the three aircraft are being used for flight tests while the other, which was the second conforming aircraft built, is ground-bound structural test article. The company said two more flight test aircraft and an unspecified number of structural test copies will be built in the coming year. It’s been eight years since the first flight of the proof-of-concept HondaJet.
