The first flight-test Mitsubishi Aircraft MRJ90 regional jet is enroute to Moses Lake to continue its flight testing in the US.
Mitsubishi tells FlightGlobal that FTA-1 took off from Nagoya at 13:28 local time on 26 September, landing around 1.5 hours later at Sapporo Shin Chitose airport.
One day later, it took off from Shin Chitose at 9:23 local time, arriving at Yelizovo, Russia around 2.5 hours later.
Mitsubishi says that the ferry flight is expected to take around one week, or potentially as short as four days.
Further details on the ferry flight will be released once FTA-1 the aircraft arrives at Moses Lake, the manufacturer adds.
Mitsubishi had planned to ferry the aircraft to the US in August, but was forced to abandon the ferry twice due to anomalies with a sensor in the aircraft’s air monitoring system. That effectively grounded the jet until 9 September, when FTA-1 undertook a validation test flight from Nagoya.
The airframer will base four of its five test aircraft at its Moses Lake flight test centre near Seattle. It hopes to certify the aircraft in early 2018, and deliver the first unit to launch customer All Nippon Airways in the middle of the year.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
