A new entry for light jets: The HondaJet 2600
A bigger version of the HondaJet, that can fly coast to coast? Yes, please!
Note: For information purposes only. Not intended as personalized legal, tax, or financial advice of any sort. Please consult a qualified professional.
See our previous article, “The Case For Private Jet Travel.”
The HondaJet has already proven to be a game-changer in the ultra-light jet category. Now, Honda appears poised to unveil yet another game-changing model in the light jet category: The HondaJet 2600.
For now, the plane is pegged as an 11-seater, which would normally mean 2 pilots and up to 9 passengers. But not with the 2600, if Honda has its way. The company envisions a single-pilot certification for it, which if it gets approved as such (and we’re a long way from that point) would make it the largest business jet we know of to earn such. This would make it a one pilot, 10 passenger jet, with one of those passengers sharing the flight deck, of course. Single-pilot commercial approval would mean markedly lower operating costs for business and other operators, it should go without saying, and the airlines will be watching this one closely to see how a single-pilot future might go.
The 2600 would also boast some eye-opening technological features, especially for an aircraft this size, including a number of unspecified electrical and automated systems, including autothrottle and autobrake, among others. Both of those things, of course are necessary for the installation of a utility such as Garmin’s Autoland, which today is only approved for emergency use, so it would be speculation for us to suggest that the future might hold a larger, single-pilot HondaJet with a non-emergency version of autoland, so we won’t engage in any such speculation…
…it would be a big step up from the seven-seat HondaJet, which has been a great seller for the company, with more than 170 aircraft delivered, though 2020, that is, and that number should hit close to the 200 mark by the end of this year.
It will also be a step up in capability, with a targeted 450-knot cruise speed and a range of 2,625 nm and a ceiling of 47,000 feet, which would be very high flying for a small-midsized jet. A close competitor would be Textron Aviation’s Citation XLS Pus, which has the same seating capacity, a cruise speed of 440 knots and a range of 2,100 nm. So, the 2600 would be stiff competition based solely on Honda Aircraft’s hoped-for capabilities for the model, though Cessna’s world-class service center network and the long term success of the product would be tough to face off against.
More information and specs available at the HondaJet website.