Mitsubishi Aircraft says it has incorporated all known risks into the MRJ regional jet’s schedule, and is confident of delivering the first aircraft in mid-2018.
In an interview with Flightglobal at the Singapore air show, president Hiromichi Morimoto says the airframer is also working to push forward the ferry flight of FTA-1 to the USA to the summer of 2016 from autumn. This will allow the programme to commence its US flight test campaign earlier, giving Mitsubishi a three-month buffer to meet its entry into service target.
“FTA-1’s performance has been quite good. All the data is just as we expected and the noise level, particularly at take-off, is quite excellent,” he says.
From the four test flights so far, Mitsubishi has been able to get a sense of the aircraft’s basic flight characteristics and performance.
The Japanese manufacturer is now targeting for FTA-2 to make its first flight in May. Thereafter, the third, fourth and fifth flight test jets should conduct their first flights within two months of one another.
Morimoto says the challenge remains in completing its 2,500h flight test campaign “as quickly as possible”, and that getting the aircraft certified is also a hurdle it will need to cross with the help of US experts.
“If everything goes as expected we can definitely achieve the revised schedule, but of course some issues cannot be foreseen so we need some allowances as a buffer to achieve EIS,” he adds.
Since the aircraft’s first flight, Mitsubishi has also seen increased interest from operators, and is especially keen to win orders from European and Asian customers, including leasing companies.
“Our target is to have 1,000 MRJ units sold and now we have 407 orders. Our aircraft is now real and flying, so I’m very confident we can reach the 1,000 aircraft goal,” says Morimoto.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
