Matt Thurber, editor-in-chief at AIN Media Group, has been flying since 1975 and writing about aviation since 1978 and now has the best job in the world, running editorial operations for Aviation International News, Business Jet Traveler, and FutureFlight.aero. In addition to working as an A&amp;P mechanic on everything from Piper Cubs to turboprops, Matt taught flying at his father’s flight school in Plymouth, Mass., in the early 1980s, flew for an aircraft owner/pilot, and for two summer seasons hunted swordfish near the George’s Banks off the East Coast from a Piper Super Cub. An ATP certificated fixed-wing pilot and CFII and commercial helicopter pilot, Matt is type-rated in the Citation 500 and Gulfstream V/550. Based in the Pacific Northwest, Matt and his team cover the entire aviation scene including business aircraft, helicopters, avionics, safety, manufacturing, charter, fractionals, technology, air transport, advanced air mobility, defense, and other subjects of interest to AIN, BJT, and FutureFlight readers.

Editor-in-Chief

Matt Thurber

With type inspection authorization testing of the HondaJet Elite II’s Garmin Autoland system now complete, final FAA test pilot evaluation is next. This will be followed by full Autoland certification and deployment in new-production HondaJets. Honda Aircraft also conducted a test flight of a HondaJet running 100% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
When Autoland is certified on the HondaJet, this will be the first FAA approval of the system on a very light twinjet. Autoland is already certified on Cirrus SR-series pistons and the SF50 Vision Jet, Beechcraft King Airs, Pilatus PC-12 Pro, Piper M700, and Daher TBM 960.
Autoland can be deployed by passengers in case the pilot becomes incapacitated, or the system automatically engages after it detects no pilot interaction. Once engaged, Autoland navigates to a suitable airport, sends distress calls to ATC, lands, and shuts down the engines.
“Emergency Autoland was one of the first programs we announced when I assumed leadership of Honda Aircraft, and I’m incredibly proud of our engineers for their commitment to realize this capability for our customers,” said Honda Aircraft president and CEO Hideto Yamasaki. “We sincerely appreciate the patience of our customers and are very excited to be so close to certification for our HondaJet Elite II.”
Honda Aircraft will add Autoland to the Elite II once the system receives FAA certification. The autothrottle system required for Autoland was certified on the HondaJet in 2024.
During the recent SAF test, a HondaJet flew over Greensboro, North Carolina, with its HF120 engines burning 100% SAF. This was the first-ever flight of a very light twinjet running 100% SAF.
The neat SAF consisted of a mix of hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids synthetic paraffinic kerosene and hydrodeoxygenated synthetic aromatic kerosene. The test was conducted with engine manufacturer GE Honda Aero, which had run 100% SAF ground tests with the HF120 in 2022 and 2023.

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In this article

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