10 FAILED General Aviation Airplanes

The Lear Fan could have seen production life but the FAA person handling certification made a novel interpretation on a requirement on failure mode of the 2 engine to 1 propeller transmission. Lear fan appealed the interpretation but the FAA circled the wagon to protect the guilty. After the program was killed the FAA reversed the interpretation of the requirement but it wall all too late.

As for the Starship, there are some other details. The Proof of Concept by Burt Rutan was more a homebuilt project than a scaleable to production effort. As the intended successor to the King Air it failed to recognize one of its significant attributes - comfortable cabin cross section. An unmitigated financial disaster for Beech.

 

Not to mention this was the first all-composite airframe and new rules/regulations were being made as the development effort proceeded, with the end result being a grossly overweight/overbuilt structure. Not entirely the FAA's fault, just that Lear ended up being the guinea pig for a years long effort in defining how to certify composite structure.

Not the only PoC by Rutan that failed to consider scaled vs production.​

 

I spent some time crawling around in one of them during a redesign phase....I was shocked at how thick the hull was in some places; over 3", and the material looked solid, not aerated. I just thought; "hmm, bullet-proof", not giving a thought as to weight issues.

 

I guess the jury is still out on the HondaJet...

 

One of the LearFan prototypes sat for years in the concourse at SeaTac airport... I was never really sure why it was there.

I also remember for years there was a Trade-a-Plane ad for the entire program, two prototypes, data package, etc.

 

If there is one thing I know its to NEVER bet against Honda. In the end this will be one of the most successful light jets out there if only as a result of the maniacal dedication the Japanese have for product support. As a former owner of a Mitsubishi MU2, with product support beyond belief THIRTY YEARS after they ended production (including bi annual paid for support meetings called PROP) I have seen this first hand.

My hangar mate owns a Honda Jet and after the brake issues were fixed (and they were a REAL issue) he is happy as a clam with his.

 

I believe that the HondaJet plan is that this is just step one to creating a family. Somewhere of recent there was a report of Honda already working on the stretch iteration. Sounds like they could be following the old Cessna Citation playbook.