Japan cancels Mitsubishi SpaceJet, grounding dream of homegrown airliner
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Loading... - Melati Supriadi
- 08 Feb 2023
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After years of delays, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries admits building Japan’s first homegrown passenger jet was too difficult and probably not viable
Japan has abandoned plans to build its first homegrown passenger jet after years of technical setbacks and soaring costs.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has said it will cancel the public-private SpaceJet project, a decade after the aircraft was supposed to have gone into commercial service.
The company said the regional jet, which suffered repeated delivery delays and technical glitches, had “failed to confirm sufficient business viability”.
The twin-engine plane, designed to carry fewer than 100 passengers, was intended for short flights and was supposed to open a new chapter in Japan’s aviation sector.
But the project, which was launched in 2008 under the name Mitsubishi Regional Jet, suffered repeated setbacks and missed its 2013 rollout. It was put on hold in October 2020 after yet more glitches and a dramatic fall in demand for new aircraft during the coronavirus pandemic.
Some test flights were aborted because of air conditioning defects and other software problems, and the delays meant revisions to the original design were required. Read More…
