Photo: Honda
Unlike the auto and at times moto industries, the aviation world is not that active when it comes to releasing new aircraft models into the wild. That makes any new apparition in the segment something worth looking at. Even more so when we're talking about a piece of tech unlike any other.
It was back in 2021 when Japanese aircraft maker Honda introduced the HondaJet 2600 concept. Hailed as the only single-pilot light jet aircraft that could easily traverse the United States during a single non-stop flight, it made quite a fuss back then, and it eventually prompted Honda to send the thing into production.
That announcement was made earlier in the summer of this year, but at the time we did not know under what name the plane would sell. Now, as it gears for the 2023 National Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition (NBAA-BACE) taking place in Las Vegas, Honda spilled that detail as well - HondaJet Echelon is the name chosen for the plane.
Honda will take advantage of its presence at the event this week to present a mockup of the Echelon alongside an actual HondaJet Elite II. The real version of the new plane is still some time away, though.
After going through the official power-on ceremony in August, the Echelon is presently in the detailed design review stage, and it targets Critical Design Review for the summer of next year.
The first build processes of the plane will then start in Greensboro, North Carolina, the same year. The first test flight should take place in 2026, and type certification is expected two years later.
The plane will be powered by Williams International engines and it will be capable of reaching speeds of up to 833 mph (1,340 kph). Two configurations will be on the table, allowing for either one crew and ten passengers, or two crew and nine passengers.
The maximum distance the plane should be able to reach on a single flight is over 3,000 miles (4,828 km). That's a little over the greatest distance between two mainland points in the U.S.: 2,892 miles (4,654 km) in a straight line from Point Arena, California, to West Quoddy Head, Maine.
The exact specifications of the plane are not known at this time, given how it's still in the development stages, but Honda did say a thing or two about it.
As far as performance gets, the Echelon should "outperform conventional light jets on typical missions by up to 20% and mid-sized jets by over 40%" – of course, the specifics of exactly what that means are not known.
We also know the pilots will be assisted in their mission by a lot of automation systems, and the Garmin G3000 avionics suite will be on deck to help with that. The passengers, on the other hand, should enjoy "an experience typically reserved for larger aircraft."
That announcement was made earlier in the summer of this year, but at the time we did not know under what name the plane would sell. Now, as it gears for the 2023 National Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition (NBAA-BACE) taking place in Las Vegas, Honda spilled that detail as well - HondaJet Echelon is the name chosen for the plane.
Honda will take advantage of its presence at the event this week to present a mockup of the Echelon alongside an actual HondaJet Elite II. The real version of the new plane is still some time away, though.
After going through the official power-on ceremony in August, the Echelon is presently in the detailed design review stage, and it targets Critical Design Review for the summer of next year.
The first build processes of the plane will then start in Greensboro, North Carolina, the same year. The first test flight should take place in 2026, and type certification is expected two years later.
The plane will be powered by Williams International engines and it will be capable of reaching speeds of up to 833 mph (1,340 kph). Two configurations will be on the table, allowing for either one crew and ten passengers, or two crew and nine passengers.
The maximum distance the plane should be able to reach on a single flight is over 3,000 miles (4,828 km). That's a little over the greatest distance between two mainland points in the U.S.: 2,892 miles (4,654 km) in a straight line from Point Arena, California, to West Quoddy Head, Maine.
The exact specifications of the plane are not known at this time, given how it's still in the development stages, but Honda did say a thing or two about it.
As far as performance gets, the Echelon should "outperform conventional light jets on typical missions by up to 20% and mid-sized jets by over 40%" – of course, the specifics of exactly what that means are not known.
We also know the pilots will be assisted in their mission by a lot of automation systems, and the Garmin G3000 avionics suite will be on deck to help with that. The passengers, on the other hand, should enjoy "an experience typically reserved for larger aircraft."
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