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Mitsubishi Announced The Discontinuation Of SpaceJet program
A decade after the passenger plane was scheduled to enter commercial service, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries said Tuesday it had abandoned its struggling project to develop a passenger plane.
The cancellation of the SpaceJet programme also puts an end to Japan’s dreams of resurrecting its domestic aircraft manufacturing sector. The program’s aircraft launch date was postponed six times, and its development expenditures totaled about JPY1 trillion (USD7.6 billion). The SpaceJet program’s ongoing development was put on hold in 2020 to reduce development expenses.
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Despite initial optimism, the SpaceJet, then known as the Regional Jet (MRJ), introduction in 2008 was met with a number of delays and order cancellations. Mitsubishi never received a type certificate (TC) for the SpaceJet, and the project came to an end without Japan having a domestic commercial aircraft programme.
In a slide included in Mitsubishi’s Q3 FY2022 financial report about the cancellation of the development of the regional jet, the company stated that it will “leverage knowledge and experience acquired through the SpaceJet programme to continue contributing to the Japanese aviation industry, which aspires to return OEM aircraft manufacture to the country.” Additionally, the conglomerate took away two lessons. Initially, that it lacked “resources to pursue long-term development” and an adequate starting understanding of the complex type certification process for commercial aircraft.
Mitsubishi has so far produced eight M90s. One was scrapped in 2022, one is a testbed aircraft that hasn’t been delivered, two are finished but are still at the assembly site and aren’t allocated, three are in Moses Lake storage, and one is in Nagoya Komaki storage.
