A second flight test aircraft from the MRJ regional jet programme has arrived at the airframer’s US test facility in Moses Lake after a 14,000km journey.
FTA-4 took off from Nagoya Airfield at 09:35 local time on 15 November and arrived at Grant County International airport in Washington at 13:46 local time on 18 November, says Mitsubishi Aircraft. In between, the aircraft made stops at Guam International airport, Majuro International airport in Marshall Islands, Honolulu International airport and San Jose International airport.
The southbound journey took approximately 18h 43min. This is longer than the 13h 08min that FTA-1 took with a northbound route. Then, the aircraft flew 8,300km, making stops at Sapporo, Russia and Alaska.
The Japanese manufacturer tells FlightGlobal that the ferry flight "went well".
Mitsubishi is targeting to have four flight-test aircraft at Moses Lake by the end of 2016.
Mitsubishi Aircraft
The programme schedule calls for the MRJ to enter into service in mid-2018. While a schedule delay is expected, Mitsubishi has however only said that it has warned customer All Nippon Airways of a “risk of delay” of the first MRJ due to “technical reasons”.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
