Why Aerion needed a Honda
There is a strange symmetry about the sad demise of Aerion at the weekend and the launch of the upgraded HondaJet Elite S this week. Although the link may not seem obvious. Aerion was targeting a niche of the ultra-rich and large companies willing to pay $120m for a supersonic aircraft.
Honda (at least so far) has focused on the very light jet market with its new version priced at $5.4m. Aerion (like most manufacturers) was also putting two of the three engines on upside down.
Aerion was formerly launched in 2003. Honda Aircraft Corporation in 2006. But both projects went back a lot further and were led from the start with phenomenal engineering talent. Michimasa Fujino, HondaJet’s CEO, joined the company’s aviation research division in 1984 after working on car electrical steering systems. Dr Richard Tracy, Aerion’s founder and chief technical officer, launched a company called Affordable Supersonic Executive Transport in 1991 and used technology f