JAPAN: Mitsubishi Regional Jet For Delivery Starting Mid 2020

The Mitsubishi Regional Jet will complete another set of test flights in the latter half of 2018 following design changes, keeping Japan's first homegrown passenger jet in decades on track for delivery starting in mid-2020, the head of Mitsubishi Aircraft says.

The MRJ's delivery date has been postponed five times, most recently in January 2017 for design modifications that involve shifting some equipment and wiring.

But a fresh design is within reach, and Mitsubishi Aircraft has resumed production of fittings for the plane, President Hisakazu Mizutani said.

The wiring redesign will kick off in earnest in 2018, he said.

Mizutani said after becoming president of the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries unit in April that the design changes would conclude around autumn 2017.

He denied that development had fallen behind schedule, saying that everything was going nearly as planned.

The president also has spoken of possibly handing off the first MRJs at the end of 2019, but he insists that date is ultimately an internal target.

The company has promised clients an initial delivery date in mid-2020, and will keep its word, he said.

The MRJ needs to receive type certification by that time in order to fly commercially. Around 3,000 hours of flight testing are thought necessary to earn that stamp of approval.

Mitsubishi Aircraft says the jet has racked up over 1,500 hours in test flights conducted in the U.S., and Mizutani said additional flights reflecting the design changes will occur in the second half of 2018.

But according to Japan's transport ministry, the aircraft is not yet prepared to begin test flights for type certification or undergo review.

Mitsubishi Aircraft has roped in orders for 447 of the jets so far. But 40 of those came from American carrier Eastern Air Lines, which was purchased by rival Swift Air in 2017.

Though the Japanese company continues to negotiate with Eastern over the MRJs, it is possible they could cancel the order for the 40 jets, Mizutani said.

The aircraft developer ended March 2017 in a financial hole of roughly 51 billion yen or $452 million at current rates, and is borrowing from its parent to continue work on the jet.


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JAPAN: Eastern Air Lines Cancels Order For 40 Mitsubishi Regional Jets From Mitsubishi Aircraft

Mitsubishi Aircraft has agreed with Eastern Air Lines to cancel the U.S. carrier's order for 40 Mitsubishi Regional Jets.

Mitsubishi Aircraft has received orders for around 450 MRJs.

According to the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries unit, the cancellation will not affect delivery of other jets.

Mitsubishi Aircraft, which has pushed back its first deliveries five times already, now expects to ship its first jets in 2020.

Eastern Air last year was purchased by rival Swift Air. Eastern then lost its airline license.

The carrier ordered the passenger jets four years ago, and delivery was originally scheduled to start in 2019, but Mitsubishi Aircraft has twice pushed back the date, which had been up in the air before the cancellation.

The Japanese company is now anxious about other orders, like one from SkyWest of the U.S. for 200 aircraft.

The MRJ made its maiden test flight in 2015 and has been taking to the air for further tests in the U.S. since then.

Last January, however, Mitsubishi Aircraft was forced to announce a fifth delay, saying the MRJ failed to be certified as airworthy by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.

Since then, other makers of regional jets have been heaping pressure on Mitsubishi Aircraft. Brazil's Embraer, regarded as the biggest player in the space, is in tie-up negotiations with Boeing.

Canada's Bombardier has already joined hands with Airbus. And a Chinese company, Comac, has introduced its own regional jet.

In Japan, the fate of the MRJ progra, the first effort to produce a domestic passenger aircraft in about a half century is a matter of national pride.

Amid all the media attention, there are hopes that the jet can debut in time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has decided to act. It has brought the problem ridden Mitsubishi Aircraft under the direct supervision of its president, Shunichi Miyanaga.

The parent company also plans to hire aircraft engineers away from U.S. makers so that they can help the MRJ win certification by the end of next year.


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IRAN: Mitsubishi To Sell Planes To Iran

Iran has reportedly started talks to purchase planes from Mitsubishi Aircraft - the aviation arm of Japan's industrial giant Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Japan's media say the country's Mitsubishi Aircraft is negotiating with Iran to provide the country with its regional passenger jets that are currently under development.

The Nikki newspaper says in a report that Mitsubishi Aircraft - the aviation arm of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries - began market surveys into Iran last September, four months before the U.S. lifted sanctions.

The company has been negotiating over jet sales with Iran's flag carrier Iran Air and Iran Aseman Airlines, as well as the country's aviation authorities.

Iran Air is weighing purchasing 80 70-seat Mitsubishi Regional Jets and using them for domestic routes, Nikki added. Executives from both sides also discussed a possible deal last month during the International Air Transport Association conference in Dublin.

The report added that Mitsubishi is trying to use the help of the Japanese government over the purchase and wants to make use of state-backed financing.

Iranian airliner Iran Air and Boeing reached a memorandum of agreement in June, under which a total of 80 aircraft will be sold to Iran and a further 29 will be leased with Boeing's support as part of a $25 billion contract.

Meanwhile, Boeing's European rival Airbus is also awaiting Washington's approval of an agreement with Tehran over the purchase of 118 planes, worth over $27 billion.

The deals with Boeing and Airbus came after aircraft sanctions against Tehran were lifted under a landmark nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1 group of nations-the US, Russia, France, Britain, China and Germany-reached in July last year.

Body was formed last year to implement the economic views of the Leader of Iran's Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.

Mitsubishi Wants To Start US MRJ Flight Tests

Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp. is seeking permission from Japanese and US regulators to move the start of MRJ flight testing in the US from the end of this year to this summer.

The MRJ90 achieved first flight in Japan in November 2015, but in December Mitsubishi Aircraft announced a delay in the planned first delivery of the aircraft to All Nippon Airways (ANA) to mid-2018. Under the revised flight test schedule, the start of flight testing in the US—where four of five MRJ90s planned for the flight test program will conduct the vast majority of MRJ flying required to gain certification—was set for the fourth quarter of 2016 or the early part of the 2017 first quarter.

With the first MRJ flight test aircraft (FTA-1) having accumulated about 44 flight hours in 22 test flights in Japan, Mitsubishi Aircraft now wants to bring FTA-1 to the US about six months earlier. FTA-2, which is in the final stages of preparation for its first flight in Japan this month, could also come to the US this summer, according to Mitsubishi Aircraft officials. MRJ flight testing in the US will be based at Grant County International Airport in Moses Lake, Washington.

Mitsubishi Aircraft head of strategic marketing Hideyuki Kamiya said the Japanese manufacturer wants to bring MRJ flight test aircraft to the US ahead of schedule to create a “schedule buffer” in case “unexpected things” are encountered in the flight test program.

Speaking to ATW on the sidelines of the Regional Airline Association (RAA) convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, Kamiya explained that a much higher frequency of flight testing can occur more quickly if FTA-1 and FTA-2 are brought to the US this summer because flight testing is far more restricted in Japan.

“We can have a high rate of flight tests in the US,” he said. “We can have several flight tests a day in the US, while we have a maximum of two flights a day [allowed] in Japan. We will have a much higher [flight test] frequency in the US.”
If the first two MRJ flight test aircraft come to the US this summer, Mitsubishi Aircraft hopes to bring FTA-3 and FTA-4 to the US by the end of 2016.

Mitsubishi Aircraft executives have said that flight testing has gone as expected so far, but the company has not yet released flight test data. Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp. America chairman and CEO Masao Yamagami, who is overseeing the company’s activities in the US, told ATW that flight test data will be released two to three months after flight testing starts in the US. The data “may drive more appetite from [potential airline] customers” for the MRJ, Yamagami said.

Mitsubishi Aircraft has secured 223 firm orders for the MRJ90 and is in the process of finalizing a letter of intent (LOI) with Florida-based lessor Aerolease Aviation for 10 firm aircraft plus 10 options.

Yamagami said there are “several [MRJ sales] campaigns [ongoing] in parallel,” but conceded that no orders are imminent. However, he noted that Mitsubishi Aircraft “felt a dramatic change” in discussions with airlines after the MRJ’s first flight. “Customers are now discussing the real airplane,” he explained. “Before that, it was a paper airplane.”

JAPAN: Fifth Postponement For The Mitsubishi Regional Jet

Mitsubishi Aircraft will yet again push back the much-anticipated first flight of its new passenger jet, this time from next week to the week of Nov. 9, citing upgrades to a cockpit part.

The change marks the fifth postponement for the Mitsubishi Regional Jet, the first commercial jet airliner developed in Japan. It also goes to show that engineers and senior officials were not keeping in step with one another at the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries subsidiary.

The company will modify parts of the rudder pedals in the cockpit. The pedals move the rudder for yaw control, and improvement is intended to broaden the scope of the rudder's side-to-side movement. A wider movement makes it easier to stabilize an aircraft in bad weather should one of the two engines fail.

Still, the upgrade is not absolutely necessary for the first flight, according to Mitsubishi Aircraft. This is because the maiden flight will not take place in rain or other inclement weather as it is designed to check basic performance, such as taking off, flying and landing.

For this reason, the improvement was originally scheduled for after the first flight. Yet a call came at the last minute to make the change out of a concern for safety, indicating a lack of communication among those involved in development.

When it announced its fourth postponement in April, Mitsubishi Aircraft said it was giving priority to making a near-perfect jet that would require few improvements after the first flight. What's more, President Hiromichi Morimoto, who was sent to the company in April to oversee the development team, had pledged to make the maiden flight happen in October.

Friday's announcement of the delay disappointed many aviation aficionados. Anticipating large crowds for the MRJ debut, a regional airport in Nagoya selected for the flight test had even decided to close the observation deck from Sunday to Nov. 1.

The jet was initially scheduled for its first takeoff back in 2011. The flight has been postponed several times since for design and manufacturing reviews. This time around, the improvement will not involve any defects in equipment or systems, and the company still plans to stay on schedule with regard to obtaining government certification in spring 2017 and delivering the aircraft to ANA Holdings' All Nippon Airways sometime between April and June of that year.

The jet is set to be screened by the transport ministry next week for a flight permit, to be followed by a high-speed runway test. "We will make the jet ready for flight anytime," said a Mitsubishi Aircraft official.

However, Senior Executive Vice President Nobuo Kishi, who oversees engineering, warned, "you never know what could happen." Aircraft development is full of pitfalls, something newcomer Mitsubishi Aircraft is learning the hard way.

JAPAN: Japanese MRJ Regional Jet First Test Flight In Late October

Japanese twin-engine MRJ will conduct its first test flight in Japan in late October, announced Monday the aircraft manufacturer Mitsubishi Aircraft, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Group (MHI).

After four postponements, the maiden flight is now expected in the second half of October at a date to be precisely defined. The commissioning of the first Japanese aircraft line is still scheduled in 2017. It will be available in two versions: the MRJ-70 with 78 seats as standard single-class layout and MRJ-90 with 86 to 96 seats. Two Pratt & Whitney PW1200G turbofan, whose certification is expected soon, will equip the unit.

The MRJ has so far registered 407 orders including 223 farms, says Mitsubishi Aircraft. The launch customer All Nippon Airways (ANA) bought 15 RJ-90 (plus 10 options). Btw this is the MRJ-90 model which recorded the entire firm orders, including 100 units for the US partner SkyWest Airlines or 32 for Japan, while the little brother the MRJ-70 does not always account . The Japanese regional aircraft will compete with short and medium haul of brézilien Embraer and Bombardier of Canada.