Honda to enter aviation business

Japan's major carmaker Honda Motor Co. said it will enter the aviation business to produce and sell small aircraft, according to a company press release in Tokyo Wednesday.

The announcement was made on Tuesday in the world's largest annual aviation gathering the Experimental Aircraft Association Air Venture 2006 at Wisconsin, the United States.

Honda said it will set up a new firm to handle the jet business in the United States and begin receiving orders in fall.

The major automaker aims to start mass production of six- to seven-passenger HondaJets in the United States after obtaining permission from U.S. authorities in the next three to four years. The HondaJet publicly flew an experimental version last year.The company hopes to deliver the first jet to a customer in 2010.

"Aviation has been an important dream of Honda for more than four decades," the press release said.

The company began studying aeronautics to honor the memory of founder Soichiro Honda, who dreamed of building aircraft before he died in 1991, an English-language newspaper Japan Times quoted a company executive as saying.

Honda said it plans to form a business tie-up with U.S. aircraft maker Piper Aircraft Inc., to collaborate on sales and service.

The automaker's entry into the aircraft manufacture business will put it in rivalry with industry leaders, including Textron Inc.'s Cessna and Eclipse Aviation Corp., the paper said.

A version of the HondaJet the company demonstrated last year can cruise at 420 knots at 9,000 meters and fly as high as about 13,000 meters.

Source: Xinhua