{"id":927,"date":"2011-05-12T14:09:00","date_gmt":"2011-05-12T04:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.privatefleet.com.au\/?p=927"},"modified":"2020-06-20T01:55:37","modified_gmt":"2020-06-19T15:55:37","slug":"honda-joins-rolls-royce-in-the-air","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/home\/honda-joins-rolls-royce-in-the-air\/","title":{"rendered":"Honda Joins Rolls-Royce… in the Air"},"content":{"rendered":"

Honda is set to join the likes of Rolls-Royce, Saab and BMW.\u00a0 You may be wondering what a typical middle-class family drive like Honda (which is not to run Honda down \u2013 they\u2019re good cars that do the job they\u2019re designed to do with flying colours, i.e. getting families from A to B in comfort and safety at an affordable price) is doing alongside luxurious European models.\u00a0 But we\u2019re not talking about cars here: we\u2019re talking about aeroplanes.<\/p>\n

Yes, Honda is set to launch the Hondajet<\/a> and has got a working prototype up into the air successfully.\u00a0 Tests are still being carried out, so it\u2019ll be a wee while until we get Hondas above the roads as well as on them. (If you think it takes time to get a car from concept to the car sales yard, it\u2019s nothing to the testing that aircraft go through).\u00a0 Honda isn\u2019t alone in being a car manufacturer that has branched out beyond just four wheels.<\/p>\n

BMW no longer makes aircraft but, like many European engineers during World War II, turned away from cars and motorbikes and went into aircraft instead to aid the war effort.\u00a0 This aviation legacy is retained in BMW\u2019s logo, which is intended to represent the propeller of an aircraft.<\/p>\n

Saab still makes aircraft \u2013 in fact, aircraft is where Saab started (SAAB stands for \u201cSvenska Aeroplan Arktiebolag\u201d or \u201cSwedish Aeroplane Company Ltd\u201d).\u00a0 Saab\u2019s real success stories in the aviation world are the Viggen and the Gripen, which were fighter aircraft that were used until quite recently as the plane of choice by NATO and prized for their ability to take off and land in rough conditions.\u00a0 This explains why the top-notch Saab car models often have the tag \u201cGripen\u201d, \u201cViggen\u201d or \u201cAero\u201d.\u00a0 And some of that fighter jet technology has been popped into some of the latest cars as a safety feature. Saab is quite a military organisations, and it also makes weaponry and defence systems.\u00a0 And don\u2019t forget the trucks, now that Saab has merged with Scania.<\/p>\n

You will probably find more Rolls-Royce engines in the air than on the roads.\u00a0 In fact, you\u2019d be safe enough saying that Rolls-Royce is primarily a manufacturer of aircraft engines that does luxury cars on the side rather than the other way around, even though the man and woman on the street probably thinks of the posh car if you mention a Rolls.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s often quite interesting to think about the other things that car manufacturers go in for and the places you can find the badge on the front of your set of wheels.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a sample:<\/p>\n