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Honda-General Electric's HF120 Jet Engines Pass 200k Flight Hours, Sadly Without VTEC

Honda has their hands in just about every facet of vehicle design, engineering, and production. The realm of passenger jet aerospace is no different, as their HF120 light turbofan jet engine. A design that just this week logged its 200,000th flight hour in the air.
Honda Jet 6 photos
Photo: Honda Global
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In conjunction with the American Aerospace giants at General Electric, Honda has been developing and fine-tuning the HF120 jet engine since the late 2000s. All in the hopes of creating an in-house developed powerplant for Honda's HA-240 HondaJet, an airframe that's already been built in over 200 units in its production cycle by the end of 2021. Not bad for a small yield private jet.

Developed using engines from other manufacturers, the HondaJet began production using Honda-General Electric's own engine in December 2015. Since then, the HondaJet's passed every test the aviation sector could throw at it with flying colors. Including only a single loss of hull incident over seven years with no fatalities or injuries.

The facility that manufactures HF120 engines for the HondaJet and other potential clients is based in Burlington, North Carolina. It's exported HF120 engines to as many as 42 different countries. At 2,095 lbs thrust, they're no afterburning screamers. But what they lack in raw power, they make up for in refinement, reliability, and brand recognition. It's an achievement Honda is no doubt extremely proud of. As nobody, some of us included, ever anticipated much would come out of Honda's light jet aircraft initiative.

"We are excited to share this milestone with our customers," said Melvyn Heard, president of GHAE. "The engine has demonstrated best-in-class reliability and cost of ownership for our global customers. We realize the great importance our customer's place on reliability and aircraft availability. This is a testament to all those involved in this milestone, including our dedicated product support team."

Here's to 200,000 more accident-free flying hours. The more of that, the merrier for all of us. Would you fly on a jet from the same company that brought us the Civic? Let us know in the comments down below.
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