July 25 (Bloomberg) -- Honda Motor Co., the world's largest maker of engines for autos, motorcycles and power products, plans to enter the aviation market by selling a six-passenger jet plane, according to a person familiar with the plan.

The company will make the announcement today, said the person, who didn't want to be identified because the decision isn't yet public. The commitment would come a year after Tokyo- based Honda flew an experimental six-person HondaJet in public for the first time, calling it faster and more fuel-efficient than any similar aircraft.

Honda's arrival as an aircraft manufacturer puts it in competition with industry leaders such as Textron Inc.'s Cessna and Eclipse Aviation Corp. Both companies are readying similar- size ``micro-jets'' for use as small corporate planes and for chartered flights, or so-called air taxi services.

``Because it's Honda, a company with a reputation as a high-quality, high-volume manufacturer, this product is going to generate a lot of interest,'' said Bob Zuskin, an analyst who tracks the corporate jet market for Herndon, Virginia-based GRA Aviation Specialists. ``I have my doubts about how big the market for these planes will be.''

The company, Japan's third-largest automaker, scheduled a conference call for 10 a.m. New York time from the Experimental Aviation Association's annual air show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The HondaJet made its inaugural public flight at the show on July 28, 2005.

The company's shares rose 3.6 percent to 3,750 yen in Tokyo.

Conference Call

Michimasa Fujino, Honda's chief engineer for the jet, will participate in the call, Honda spokesman Jeffrey Smith said. He declined to comment on what will be discussed and whether Honda would sell a commercial version of the plane.

The HondaJet cruises 10 percent faster, has a cabin that is 30 percent larger and a range that is about 40 percent greater on 14 percent less thrust than Cessna's CJI+ model, according to Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association's AOPA Pilot magazine.

A version of the plane Honda demonstrated last year can cruise at 420 knots at 30,000 feet, and fly as high as 41,000 feet. The jet has aluminum wings, a fuselage made of composite plastics, and two Honda HF118 turbofan jet engines, mounted above its wings.

The company in 2004 formed GE Honda Aero Engines LLC, a Cincinnati-based joint venture with General Electric Co., the world's largest jet-engine maker, to sell the HF118 engine. Honda has designed a piston engine for small propeller-driven aircraft, and discussed a separate venture with Teledyne Technologies Inc. to jointly manufacture and sell it.

`Emotional'

The company began studying aeronautics to honor the memory of founder Soichiro Honda, who dreamed of building aircraft before he died in 1991, Koichi Kondo, chief executive of officer of Honda's North American unit, said in a January interview.

``There was no grand strategy. It was kind of an emotional decision,'' Kondo said.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration certified the HondaJet as airworthy on Dec. 9. It is registered as an experimental aircraft, according to the FAA's Web site. Honda has been conducting test flights since 2003, when it also trademarked the HondaJet name, according to a filing with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Honda has been testing the plane at an airfield in Greensboro, North Carolina since 2003. The company's U.S. operations are based in Torrance, California.

To contact the reporters on this story: Alan Ohnsman in Los Angeles at aohnsman@Bloomberg.net; John Lippert in Southfield, Michigan at jlippert@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: July 25, 2006 02:33 EDT