News
Mitsubishi SpaceJet remains on ice
October 21st 2021
Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation (MITAC) has confirmed its foray into the regional jet market, the MRJ-200 SpaceJet, will remain on hold for the immediate future. Read More » In a response to a query from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Mitsubishi asked the regulator to close an earlier request for an exemption from some certain certification requirements. Mitsubishi’s head of certification, Ikuta Masahiko, said in email to FAA officials there were no plans to resume certification of the MRJ-200. “After the stopping of our flight test program due to the pandemic in early 2020, without resuming the test, our company had made the decision to pause developing the MRJ-200 for the next three years,’’ Masahiko said in an email obtained by Orient Aviation. “This decision was made in October 2020. All flight test vehicles were long-term stored in warehouses and large numbers of (MITAC) employees moved on to new jobs. The development has been stopped. Because there is no plan to re-start the program as of now, there is no chance of acquiring new data/information to progress this exemption request.“ MITAC was attempting to be the first Japanese-built airliner in half a century certified in the U.S. as part of attempts to break into that market . In 2019, the manufacturer rebranded the MRJ70 and the delayed MRJ90 as SpaceJets.
