Ground tests of the first Mitsubishi Regional Jet flight-test aircraft are close to completion ahead of a maiden sortie later this month.
On 14 October, at the European Regions Airline Association (ERA) general assembly in Berlin, Mitsubishi Aircraft reaffirmed its plan to conduct the MRJ's first flight in the last week of this month. The Japanese airframer has identified a window of 26-30 October for the flight, with the precise timing to be disclosed one day in advance.
"Currently, we are almost finished the ground tests for the first flight," says Mitsubishi Aircraft head of strategic marketing Hideyuki Kamiya. Once an analysis report has gone through internal review and been scrutinised by the Japan Transport Safety Board, approval by the ministry of transport clears the path to getting airborne.
Taxiing tests were undertaken at low speed earlier this year and are now being conducted at medium speed. High-speed tests will be carried out just before the first flight, says Kamiya.
The aircraft to be used for the 1h sortie from Nagoya airport is one of five involved in the test campaign.
Mitsubishi has assigned the second to engine tests; the third to checks of the control systems; and the fourth to modelling of the interior.
All Nippon Airways' livery adorns the fifth, which is to be used in testing the autopilot, but Kamiya stresses that it will not be handed over to the carrier. Rather, he says, painting the aircraft was a means of "showing some respect to our launch customer". With the wing-body join now completed on this fifth aircraft, landing-gear installation is now under way.
"The flight-test aircraft are developing as smoothly as we planned," says Kamiya. Following the first flight, four of the flight-test aircraft will be sent to the USA for trials in cross-winds, hot-and-high conditions, extreme temperatures and a rejected take-off scenario. The flight envelope will gradually be increased over the course of the campaign.
Kamiya indicates that flight-performance data will "be very helpful" to Mitsubishi Aircraft in deciding whether to proceed with development of 100-seat MRJ100X variant, which would join the 76-seat MRJ70 and 88-seat MRJ90 in the regional jet family
All of the MRJ's 223 firm orders are for the MRJ90, though conversions to the MRJ70 are possible. Options and purchase rights span a further 184 aircraft. Mitsubishi pitches the smallest variant as the "only next-generation 70-seat regional jet" and the MRJ90 as a "feeder operation and market opener". The MRJ100X, it contends, would offer the "best economics in the 100-seat market".
While the MRJ has yet to find a customer in Europe, Kamiya notes that the continent has a fleet of 300-plus regional jets that are more than 15 years old, and sees opportunities to replace these aircraft, which include Bombardier CRJ200s, Embraer ERJ-145s, Fokkers, and BAE Systems Avros.
Additionally, he detects potential for MRJs to substitute for high-speed turboprops – arguing that the Japanese aircraft offers "equivalent economics" to Bombardier's Q400 – while new orders could also be generated in Europe by the "right-sizing" trend and by new markets, he says.
As part of preparations for launch of MRJ production, a new final assembly factory is under construction in Nagoya, with operations scheduled to start in the spring of next year. The facility will be capable of accommodating 12 MRJs at any given time, and output will ramp up to a rate of 10 aircraft per month, adds Kamiya.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
