Honda upbeat on prospects for ‘flying sports car’

Japan Times ^ | 06/28/2013 | Bloomberg

[TexGrill]

Honda Motor Co., preparing to enter the market for business jets, said it’s won two to three years of orders for what it calls “flying sports cars” and signaled the business will turn profitable before the end of the decade.

The aviation business is on track to turn profitable five years after it begins delivering planes as soon as next year, Michimasa Fujino, president of Honda Aircraft, said in an interview in Tokyo on Wednesday.

Though he declined to specify the number of orders received so far, Fujino said sales of the $4.5 million jet may reach 80 to 90 units annually in a few years.

Honda, Japan’s third-largest carmaker, is betting that lessons drawn from its main automotive business will help the company compete against Textron Inc.’s Cessna and Brazil’s Embraer SA. While the U.S. currently accounts for most of the demand for business jets, Fujino said Brazil and India are among markets that offer the most growth potential.

Fujino said the location of Honda’s engines, which unlike conventional planes are mounted on top of the wings, will increase fuel efficiency by about 15 percent and allow cabin space to be 15 to 20 percent roomier than in comparable aircraft. With a cruise speed of 778 kph — 420 knots — the jet is also 10 percent faster than the average biz jet and more resistant to turbulence, he said.

[grobdriver]

Down there wishing you were up here?

[Neidermeyer]

Extra for me please

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Alas, that is because you, like me, are not corporate CEO who can afford this little beauty..

There is no picture of the 60 year old because this photo is directed at real Corporate CEOs, inviting them to imagine themselves sitting in the rear seat in place of that 60 year old, enjoying the view of the smart and convenient drink holders and stunning trophy wife.

(Tall and stylish Italian models to go with your plane! You rogue!)