Honda's New Jet Plane - Updated

There's a news report coming out of Japan stating that the Honda Motor Co. is becoming a jet-setter.

Sure the car has always been a bit of a trendy high-society business, but now it is making jets.

While you shouldn't expect to be able to get the jet engine option for your Honda Accord, Honda has stated it will deliver its first aircraft in 2013 with plans to grab at least 1/4 of the world's market for small business jets thereafter - and it is all according to the company's long-time goal of taking to the skies.

Honda, Japan's No.3 car maker (behind Toyota and Nissan, respectively) and the world's biggest manufacturer of motorcycles and engines, is in the final stages of getting its $4.5 million (¥343,352,180) HondaJet certified.

Plans are afoot to take production of the jet plane up to 80 a year by the first half of 2013.

Diagram of HondaJet interior circa 2007.

Orders have been taking off for the seven-seater HondaJet since it began taking orders back in 2006—over 100 in three days!

Honda says its HondaJet will have, relative to the competition, a quieter engine, 20 per cent better fuel economy and operational costs of two-thirds or less.

Honda Aircraft Company CEO Fujino Michimasa.

In case you were concerned that since 2006 orders for the jet may have taken a nose-dive in light of the plummeting Japanese economy and the crash and burn after effects from the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear facility near meltdown—think again.

This plane's customers are global. And... consider that if your country is sucking the big one economically, there's a country out there reaping the benefits of your sucking. The same for companies and for individuals.

While Honda has not yet commented on an updated number of orders for the HondaJet, Fujino Michimasa (surname first) chief executive officer of Honda's North Carolina, U.S.-based subsidiary, Honda Aircraft Company, states that the company has held a backlog of about three years worth of orders taken through its nine dealerships in North America and Europe, with great interest from China, India, Brazil and the Middle East.

HondaJet cockpit

"I'm very optimistic about our prospects," explains Fujino at the Tokyo headquarters of Honda.  Fujino is actually the gentleman who began Honda's climb into aviation all the way back in 1986.

"We're doing with HondaJet what the Civic did to American cars from the 1960s. Our competitors are still producing with technology from the 1990s," he states, in reference to Textron Inc.'s Cessna and Brazil's Embraer SA , which now dominate the manufacture of the 200-a-year small business jet market.

The Honda Civic automobile has since its introduction in the U.S. in 1973 been one of the best-selling cars - period - known for its reliability, durability and mileage,. It was even one of the reasons for forcing gas-guzzling U.S. car manufacturers to rethink the way it made cars.

Seating behind the cockpit.

While Fujino has been spearheading the Honda rise in the plane market, the idea goes all the way back to Honda Soichiro (1906 - 1991) - the founder of Honda who back in 1917 was inspired by watching the flight of American pilot Art Smith demonstrate his bi-plane's aerodynamic abilities. Was he inspired? Honda also enjoyed hang-gliding, and ballooning until the age of 77, and maintained his pilot's license as well.   

Featuring a jet engine manufactured via a joint venture between Honda and General Electric Co., the HondaJet expects to have operational costs of about $1,000-$1,200 an hour, compared to the competition which has a best of $1,800.

The inexpensive cost of the HondaJet could, in fact, make traveling in a group of five or six cheaper and more efficient than flying commercially between small cities.

In anticipation of the HondaJet zooming down the runway and turning a profit by 2018, Fujino has said Honda Aircraft will add 300-350 factory staff to bring its total workforce to around 1,000 in the first half of 2013.

Rear seating of HondaJet.

Japan - It's A Wonderful Rife might state that for Honda, the sky is the limit... but something tells me that it might not be. Space... the final frontier... 

Files compiled by Andrew Joseph
And... thanks to the heady knowledge of one astute reader, I realize that the Honda Aircraft Company is located in North Carolina - the birth place of aviation, as the the Wright Brothers flew out of Kitty Hawk there! Cheers Anonymous for the smack to the back of my head and correcting my error!

Pushing Wrong Button Almost Causes Plane Crash

Because a co-pilot hit the wrong button, an All Nippon Airways (ANA) aircraft, carrying 117 passengers and crew, momentarily lost control and spun while dropping over the Pacific Ocean.

The aircraft bound for Tokyo flipped almost 140 degrees to the left after the co-pilot confused command switches while trying to unlock the cockpit cabin door for the captain who was returning from the lavatory.

Instead of the cockpit door, the co-pilot hit the button for rudder control causing the plane to almost flip over entirely as it dived 6,234 feet in 30 seconds following the error.

Two crew members suffered slight injuries and six passengers reported feeling unwell after the plane, which was traveling at a height of 41,000 feet before plummeting.

The mishap took place during a domestic Boeing 737-700 flight in September 2011as it traveled from Naha in southern Okinawa to Haneda airport in Tokyo, where it did indeed land safely.

There are apparently images privy to the aviation police captured from the flight recorder that show the extent of the aircraft's power dive.

"The images are incredible," a pilot tells Japan's NHK television network. "The plane found itself in an almost unimaginable position."

An investigation into the mishap has been launched by Japan's transport safety board while ANA also issued an apology to travelers.

"We are deeply sorry for causing anxiety to our passengers," offers a senior ANA official who did not mention anything about providing a free ticket to anywhere in the world as compensation.

The darkness outside the plane at the time of the incident is thought to have prevented many passengers – believed to have been fastened in seatbelts – from realizing that they were turned almost upside-down. With the plane upside down, I'm guessing the air masks didn't readily fall in front of the sleeping passengers.

The crux of the co-pilot’s error is believed to be caused by the close proximity of the cockpit door button and the rudder trim knob, which he pressed by mistake resulting in the plane’s plunge.

Four senior officials at ANA have been reprimanded by the airline with stern warnings as a result of the incident, which highlights the potential dangers of human error overriding technology.Really? What did these four senior officials do? The co-pilot screwed up... maybe the pilot too if he wasn't supposed the exit the cockpit at that time.

News of the incident coincided with ANA celebrating the arrival of the first in a forthcoming fleet of new long-awaited Boeing 787 “Dreamliner” aircraft following three years of delays.

In a separate blow to the airline, there was also an announcement that its pilots’ unions were threatening to go on strike this weekend, with negotiations continuing in order to avoid disruption to services.

Here's a video of this story: WATCH.

A Blog Update

I thought I'd do a little update on what readers find interesting here at Japan - It's A Wonderful Rife.

First, it seems to be the blog as a whole. Back on September of 2010, there were a t total of 610 hits. For September 2011, we (I) have had over 20,000 visitors. Now I'm sure that number is a bit of an aberration considering there were just under 10,000 hits the month previous, as it seems that a lot of readers were interested in getting as much data as possible on the Miss Universe pageant held on September 12, 2011.

This blog had 11 different article up on Miss Universe, specific to Japan, including stunning and poignant biographies for Miss Universe Japan 1959, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006 and 2005. There was also an entry on National costumes for the event, one report on the actual 2011 contest, one providing an overview of the past 21 Miss Universe Japan entries, and an in-depth analysis of the contest and Japan's interpretation of beauty.

Here's a list of this blog's Top 8 most popular blog articles:

1) Miss Universe: my compilation look at the past 21 contestants from Japan.

2) Japan's Women's Soccer: surprisingly, it wasn't the entry about the up-to-the-minute report I did on the Women's World Cup of Soccer finals match between Japan and the USA, but rather the write-up on how Japan got to the finals.

3) Japan To Host 2011 FIFA Club World Cup: lots of data describing which teams are involved, where the matches will be played, and neat stuff like that. I will do an update shortly with more data. This weekend, in fact.

4) 2007 Miss Universe Japan: my biography on Mori Riyo (surname first), the Japanese representative who won the 2007 Miss Universe title. She's gorgeous, and there a few nice photos of her.

5) Japan's Women's World Cup Roster: it is what it is. But, just so you know, it was a real bugger to find this information at the time it was published. 

6) Miss Universe Japan National Costumes: it's a 10-year look back at the most recent national costumes worn by Miss Japan at the Miss Universe competitions, including the 2006 representative who won the prestigious nationalistic best national costume award.

7) USA Beats Japanese Women in Softball Final: again, it was very difficult to find information on this important match between the USA and Japan (about a week following the Women's World Cup soccer final). The Women's World Cup of Softball tourney was on television, but only on ESPN-3, -2 and -1. On ESPN 3, a specialty channel, what did maybe only 60 people watch the event? I'm sure this blog had better numbers than ESPN-3.

And... bringing up the rear (and what a rear!!!!):

8) Japanese Schoolgirl Prostitutes: its a great story on underage prostitution in Japan. It seems epidemic in Japan, but that would be an ignorant assumption. There are a lot of men looking to take advantage of young flesh in every single country of the world.

On the plus side, this blog continues to allow me to reconnect with lost friends, like Jim Paliouras and Michael Hutchison - both of Australia; Kristine S. in the USA; Matthew Hall of the USA, whom I have always been in contact with since we both left Japan.

I am still looking to reconnect with James Jimmy Jive Dalton of Stoney Creek, Alberta and Colin McKay of Calgary, Alberta - both of Canada. If anyone can help connect us, it would be appreciated.

New friends made on this blog include Mike Rogers and his excellent Marketing Japan blog; Jim and his awesome Jimbo's World; and Marc Scheffner and his great Searching For Accurate Maps blog.

I post stories from their blogs every once in a awhile.... not to steal content, but rather to cross-promote their site.

I've also put up some great stories you may have missed on such diverse topics as:

• Japan's Serial Killers (featuring biographies of their sordid life and deeds) - it took me two weeks of research to create it, so read it, dammitt!;
• Japan's Aviation Pioneer and how Japanese kids were smarter than the Wright brothers;
• Battle Royale - a movie review, slash, hype for a great, slash, movie you should all watch! Read the review first; 
• Coin Collecting, how to buy commemorative coins of the Japanese woman's world cup triumph;
• Provided international soccer results.

What more do you all want? Heck... I even found time to write about my personal life in Japan - remember, look for the rock and roll titles for those embarrassing tales of sex, slugs and sushi roll.

Come back in a few hours for another blog entry!

Cheers

Andrew Joseph