GE Honda Aero Engines said it is releasing hardware designs and receiving manufactured hardware for its first HF120 development engine, in preparation for formal certification testing. To date, the company has built and tested 10 HF120 engine cores and 10 full engine demonstrators.

During demonstration testing at Honda’s WAKO-Nishi R&D Center in Japan, the HF120 engine produced more than 2,100 pounds of thrust and exceeded its fuel-efficiency target.

The tests also verified the engine design’s operability, thermal, mechanical and component efficiencies, according to GE Honda.

Certification testing will be completed next year and will include flights on a flying testbed before flying on the customer certification later that year. By entry into service, the HF120 is expected to have logged more than 15,000 cycles of ground and flight testing.