Japan Airlines is to collaborate with Dutch-based Maeve Aerospace on its proposed Maeve Jet, a rear-engined, hybrid-electric open-rotor regional aircraft aimed at the 80- to 90-seat sector.
The carrier will provide aircraft design and operations support to assist Maeve in optimising the aircraft’s specification, and ensure it could meet the requirements of the Japanese network.
“As an island nation, Japan relies heavily on air travel to connect its regions,” says JAL senior vice-president of corporate planning Yuji Koyama. “The Maeve Jet offers a solution that significantly reduces environmental impact while enhancing economic efficiency.”
JAL is one of a number of carriers with which Maeve says it has discussed the proposed model, a five-abreast T-tail aircraft. It will have a metallic fuselage although the wing material has yet to be finalised.
Maeve intends to conduct the first flight in 2030 and achieve entry into service in 2033.
The Maeve Jet could be configured with 76 seats, to meet US scope clause restrictions, with an intended range of 1,400nm. A high-density version, seating 100, would have a 950nm range.
Maeve’s proposal has evolved considerably over the last three years, having started as a 44-seat electric aircraft with eight motors, before being revised to a four-engined model, and then expanded to a twin hybrid-electric engine design – known as the M80 – for 80 passengers.
“All the iterations were supposed to be working,” insists Maeve chief technology officer Martin Nuesseler. “But we were respecting the feedback of the customer.”
Revision to the Maeve Jet took into account public perception of the M80’s turboprop-like design, including the consideration of cabin noise. But he adds that there was a need for higher speed, in order to achieve productivity greater that that typical of a turboprop.
“You cannot compensate [for this] with fuel consumption,” he says. “We need to have more margin in speed.”
With a planned cruise speed of M0.75 and a maximum of M0.78, the Maeve Jet fits better with jet schedules, he adds.
The Pratt & Whitney Canada engine is in the development phase, he says, and will fly on a testbed next year.
Nuesseler points out that the Maeve Jet – unlike a separate long-running Dutch proposal to revive the Fokker 100 – is a “proven basic concept, in a completely new design”. He is sceptical of retrofit efforts on older designs because aircraft were optimised at the time to the technology of their era.
“We’ve presented [Maeve Jet] to a number of airlines and there’s interest because they understand the existing [regional jet] fleet will retire at some point in the future, probably in the late 2030s.”
Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries had previously co-operated with the M80 project, through its MHIRJ Aviation division. MHIRJ supports the in-service fleet of CRJ aircraft after it acquired the programme from Bombardier in 2020.
MHIRJ senior vice-president Ross Mitchell insists its collaboration with Maeve is “not a way” for Mitsubishi to return to the regional jet manufacturing business following the demise of its MRJ, later SpaceJet, programme.
While the company has yet to secure operator commitments to the aircraft, Nuesseler is confident that the Maeve Jet has good prospects.
“We are using technology which is reachable,” he says. “We are focusing on the best aircraft concept and not only just on the vertical technology…it’s not a dogmatic approach to make a hybrid or electric. It’s just what is the best result from a flight physics point of view.”
