Honda left the ground today in their own aircraft as they planned to 100 years after the Wright brothers.
See article:
<A HREF="http://asia.news.yahoo.com/031216/3/19ivl.html">http://asia.news.yahoo.com/031216/3/19ivl.html</A>

The Wrights were bicycle builders and Honda started with a powered bicycle, an interesting comparison. I wonder if Boeing ever made a bike?

I had an old motorcycle that had a rear suspension unit fail----------That went "boeing-boeing" and almost pushed my spine up through my crash helmet !

Kawasaki has a history of aeroplanes especially the TORYU which in 1943 was ahead of its era...

Yes Ian, Honda do indeed have a long way to go to catch Kawasaki in the Aviation field. Kawasaki have been building planes for some 70 years and have some really nice looking ones in their current production range, from the T4 Trainer through to transporters such as the C1. They also have a lot of involvement with with Boeing on the 767 and 777 producing many parts for these planes, in addition to their F2 and F15 Fighters associations.

They also build a range of helicopters and have a lot of involvement in Japanese Space Technology.

A mighty range for one company in a country that does not have any military forces so to speak, but does however have a Defence Force ?????????