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GE and Honda Officially Enter Turbofan Arena
The top executives of GE Transportation and Honda Motor Co. signed a formal agreement here launching their entrance into the turbofan engine arena for small and very light business jets.
The two have formed a Cincinnati-based joint venture, GE Honda Aero Engines, to develop and certify the HF118 turbofan. The first application will likely be a four- to six-seat, twin-engined air taxi aircraft; talks are under way with several manufacturers, including Embraer. No consideration has yet been given to powering a single-engined jet aircraft.
The new engine will be certified within three years of customer launch, which is itself expected within the next year, according to Gary Leonard, who will jointly lead the JV with Honda's Atsukuni Waragai. The engine will enter service at 1,600-pounds-thrust, although it will scale between 1,000 and 3,500 pounds depending on the application.
"Honda has spent several years developing the HF118 engine," said GE Transportation president and CEO Dave Calhoun. Now the JV will enable GE to bring innovative design and materials technologies to GE Honda Aero Engines, he added.
Honda will be responsible for developing the engine, and GE for design review, certification and integration with the aircraft. Both will be jointly responsible for manufacturing, but it is likely the engine's components will be sourced globally through the extensive network of suppliers that both command. Aftermarket support will be subcontracted to GE Engine Services.
The engine will enter service with on-condition maintenance and a TBO of 5,000 hours.
Asked about the engine's claimed lowest-in-class life cycle costs, Leonard allowed that competing engines are priced at around $300,000 each and that the HF118 will be "very competitive."
He said GE Honda Aero Engines sees a total market for twin-engined very light jets of 230 per year by the end of the decade, accelerating to as many as 400 per year beyond then if the concept of the light aerial taxi takes off.
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