HondaJet is moving along slowly but with progress, heading into 2011 with a production-conforming craft in action, and more to come. They and Piper have dropped their collaboration, it seems, which Piper's former CEO Kevin Gould all but admitted in summer 2010 during an employee "all-hands" meeting. The assumption was made again in an Aviation Week article (see below).
The end of the partnership, or whatever arrangement it was in legal or business terms, has not been publicly announced. The companies did publicly announce the start of collaboration, on marketing and sales of the HondaJet, rather publicly. They had, apparently, also teamed up for some engineering work, for a short time. It seems all of that is over wjhile the two companies build their very different jets, both in some way unique in significant ways.
HondaJet Flight Testing Is Underway
HondaJet competes most closely as an entry-level jet with the Phenom 100, which entered service in 2008, and the CJ1+, manufactured by well-established jet makers, Embraer and Cessna, respectively. At program launch, Piper Aircraft had agreed to collaborate on HondaJet sales and service. However, Piper subsequently began development of its own light jet, the $2.5-million Altaire, powered by a single Williams FJ44-3AP, and the arrangement with Honda has apparently been dissolved.
-- Jonny O
No comments:
Post a Comment