Paul,

I agree wholeheartedly that Mazda and its corporate owner, Ford, would be
smart to develop their rotary engine for aircraft use. This is a piece of
intellectual property with an untapped market just waiting for it.

Honda's jet is another matter altogether. Jets are sexy and get wide media
play, especially when a well-known corporate name is involved. Honda's big
announcement and sleek new jet was shown on network news and most local news
programs across North America and many other parts of the world. This kind
of PR is very valuable and burnishes Honda's image and prestige in a way
that is even more effective than its involvement with auto racing. Even if
Honda gets nothing else out of the new jet, the few million invested in the
project will have been worth it, just for the image-building alone.

Interesting to note that the Hondajet was the only piece of news out of
Oshkosh that got wide play in the mass media, which typically ignores
Oshkosh altogether. The news reports on the Hondajet I saw made no mention
of AirVenture, or any of the other big "news," like the Eclispe
certification, Cessna's new piston airplane, etc.; Honda's announcement
could have been made anywhere else and it still would have attracted the
same media play.

Ford and Mazda on the other hand have no such PR upside with the rotary
engine for small prop planes. The only people they would be scoring points
with are a few people in the amateur-built community. Even if Ford were to
announce that its Mazda division is going to build an aircraft engine, it
would make hardly any news splash. The media doesn't care about small prop
planes, except when one crashes -- and then it is for the spectacle value
only.

Regards,

Gordon.



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