Development of Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation’s MRJ regional jet continues on schedule, as some 800 engineers, designers and subcontractors in Nagoya, Japan, work to complete the project’s critical design review by year-end. The engineering team finished with the project’s preliminary design review in April and aims to ready the first of four MRJ90 prototypes for first flight near the end of 2011. Development of the 70- to 80-seat MRJ70 lags behind its larger MRJ90 sibling by roughly a year, according to Mitsubishi Aircraft executive vice president Junichi Miyakawa.
Holding firm orders for 25 MRJ90s from Japan’s All Nippon Airways, Mitsibushi plans to deliver the first of the batch in 2013. Judging by the company’s ability to quietly meet the financial, technical and organizational milestones it had set for itself early in the program, it appears unlikely that Mitsubishi has left much to chance in its choice of a target date for service entry.
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