Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) has broken ground on a new factory to build wings for the Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ).

The 5,600m2 site, located at MHI’s Kobe Shipyard & Machinery Works, will manufacture the regional jet’s wing skin and spars as well as its centre wing, says Mitsubishi Aircraft in its monthly newsletter.

The new facility will work alongside the existing 25,400m2 factory adjacent to it.

MHI had previously said that wing parts produced at the Kobe facility will be transported to Nagoya Aerospace Systems Works’ Tobishima factory for fabrication on a dedicated assembly line.

The MRJ took its first flight on 11 November, and the airframer has about 1.5 years to complete testing and certification, before it is due to deliver the first aircraft in the second quarter of 2017.

Source: Cirium Dashboard