Aircraft
Mitsubishi MRJ Plows Ahead Amid Legal Distractions
Flight test program has now clocked 2,400 hours as two more test articles prepare to fly in 2019

While Mitsubishi lawyers prepare to defend a lawsuit brought by Bombardier alleging theft of trade secrets, those tasked with bringing Japan’s first airliner to market since the 1960s continue their work unabated in Nagoya and Moses Lake, Washington. Still targeting certification in either late 2019 or early 2020, the program team has now clocked some 2,400 hours of flight testing with four flying MRJ90 prototypes, the fourth of which engineers will fit with representative avionics bay modifications in preparation for certification testing of a new configuration.