Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) confirmed a new delay to its M90 SpaceJet program, acknowledging on February 6 that it will not be able to complete type certification of the new narrowbody during 2020. The Japanese manufacturer now says that it cannot give a new target date for service entry until a redesigned test model (aircraft 10010) has been fully prepared to start test flights in the U.S. later this year.
MHI announced the troubled program’s sixth delay following a quarterly financial briefing. A company spokesman told AIN that the decision to further push back type certification follows multiple additional design changes to the 76-seat aircraft. He said that Mitsubishi now has “a baseline certifiable design that will allow us to achieve certification” while adding that “as we gain clarity as to the impact of these changes, it has become clear that we will not achieve certification in FY2020.”
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