For General Electric, the 50/50 partnership with Honda to produce and market the HF120 turbofan is a return to GE’s roots in the small-turbine-engine marketplace. “This relationship with Honda is somewhat of a renaissance,” said Bill Dwyer, president of the GE Honda Aero Engines partnership. “If you look at the heritage of GE, our business started as a small-engine company.”
As GE has grown into providing the largest turbofan engines, it never lost sight of the small-engine market, according to Dwyer, a 21-year GE veteran. “We’ve looked at the small-engine market as long as I’ve been in the company,” he said. What GE brings to the partnership with Honda is vast experience building and supporting commercial aircraft engines. “The value equation for business aviation is exactly the same as the value equation for commercial aviation,” he explained. “It’s all about engines that burn less fuel, that have lower maintenance costs and that are highly reliable.” With all the activity in smaller business jets, he added, “it’s the right time for us to jump back in, and for us it’s the right partnership to jump in with.”
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