Spirit AeroSystems has delivered the first flight test pylon for the MRJ regional jet.
A team from Spirit, Mitsubishi Aircraft and Pratt & Whitney worked together to define the structural interface points and complete the pylon structural design, says Spirit. The finished product, manufactured at Spirit’s Wichita facility, is made of materials including lightweight aluminium, titanium and composite components.
Mitsubishi awarded a contract to Spirit in 2008 to design and build pylons for the MRJ programme. The work package also includes systems, pylon-to-wing integration hardware and the aft fairing package.
The pylon rollout comes as the Japanese airframer is close to taking delivery of its first Pratt & Whitney PW1200G geared turbofan engines.
The MRJ is taking shape with the delivery of the aircraft’s right wing and tail cone section being to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ Komaki South plant earlier this month for final assembly.
In February, Mitsubishi unveiled pictures of the regional jet’s first joined fuselage. The pictures showed aircraft 10001 fused from the forward fuselage through to the aft fuselage. The Japanese-made regional jet is schedule to take its first flight in Q2 2015.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
