MRJ Program’s Latest Snag Linked to 2009 FAA Mandate
Technicians work on the MRJ’s aft fuselage section at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ Tobishima plant. (Photo: Mitsubishi Aircraft)
Technicians work on the MRJ’s aft fuselage section at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ Tobishima plant. (Photo: Mitsubishi Aircraft)

Mitsubishi Aircraft’s failure to properly forecast the effects of new U.S. Federal Aviation Administration procedures introduced in 2009 to validate regulatory compliance of production processes led to the latest delay of the MRJ90, according to company executives. The new system–called organization designation authorization (ODA)–replaced a process to certify airplanes in which a designated engineering representative (DER) and a designated manufacturing inspection representative (DMIR) validated compliance based upon a test or analysis on a part after its manufacture, explained Mitsubishi Aircraft director and head of sales Yugo Fukuhara.