Despite the announcement in April that Mitsubishi would delay the first flight of its MRJ regional jet from this spring to September or October, the company continues to cite a second-quarter 2017 first delivery target. The company has assembled the first two flight-test airplanes. Plans call for the first flying prototype to perform envelope expansion and systems tests; the second to carry out performance and function tests; the third to evaluate detailed flight characteristics and avionics tests; the fourth to perform interior, community noise and icing tests; and the fifth to assess autopilot function.

Pratt & Whitney has so far built 13 PW1200G “geared turbofans” for the flight-test fleet, including spares, in Mirabel, Canada, where it plans serial production of the PW1500G for the Bombardier CSeries. For the MRJ, however, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will assume responsibility for assembling all PW1200G production examples in Japan.

Mitsubishi Aircraft vice president of sales and marketing Yugo Fukuhara expressed general satisfaction with the performance of the MRJ’s supply chain, but he noted that some second-tier suppliers will likely change. “Also, in the future, we will select second or third options,” he added. “For example, for seats or other interior systems we need multiple suppliers.”

Speaking with AIN just prior to the Paris show, Fukuhara explained that “feedback on the airplane and subsequent ground testing” prompted the latest delay to first flight. Specifically, he noted a need to review the structural strength of the ram air turbine (RAT) and address certain software bugs.

“According to the progress of the ground test, we found several areas that needed improvement,” Fukuhara told AIN. He added that Mitsubishi could have flown the airplane in March as previously planned and ground tested the software and RAT improvements afterward. However, the company decided it would rather wait to fly the airplane until after it implements the fixes, in the interest of efficiency.

The company plans to carry out much of its flight-testing at Grant County Airport in Moses Lake, Washington, in the U.S., to take advantage of its long runways and lack of regular scheduled airline service. Other testing sites in the U.S. include Gunnison-Crested Butte Regional Airport in Colorado, where the company plans to conduct high-altitude takeoff and landing tests. Meanwhile, it has chosen Roswell International Air Center in New Mexico for special runway tests and McKinley Climatic Laboratory in Florida for extreme environment testing.

It also plans to employ 150 engineers at a new engineering center in Seattle to support all the testing activity in the U.S.

U.S. Airline Orders

Mitsubishi sees North America as the biggest and most important market for the MRJ, even though pilot union scope clauses at mainline U.S. airlines continue to restrict regional partners from flying airplanes that hold more than 76 seats and carry a maximum takeoff weight of more than 86,000 pounds. Holding firm orders for 170 airplanes from three airlines in the U.S., Mitsubishi traces well over three quarters of its order intake from the country’s regional airlines.

While one might consider such an imbalance risky, Fukuhara expressed confidence that, in fact, scope clauses would loosen to allow for the larger of the two MRJs, the MRJ90, to fly with the likes of St. George, Utah-based Skywest and St. Louis-based Trans States Airlines. If the major partners don’t manage to negotiate scope clause revisions, said Fukuhara, Mitsubishi fully expects to deliver MRJ70s instead, likely in a dual-class, 70-seat configuration.

“We understood scope clauses at the beginning of the program,” he explained. “This is why we offered the MRJ70 and MRJ90…a maximum weight of 86,000 pounds will not limit the range of the MRJ70. So it will be a marketable airplane under the current scope clause. Without any relaxation of scope clauses, no regional carrier in the U.S. can enjoy next generation aircraft, including the [Embraer] E-Jet E2… so we are very confident in the future [scope clause relief] will come.”

Fukuhara said SkyWest’s schedules call for first deliveries in 2018, by which time Mitsubishi expects to gain certification of the MRJ70, one year after the MRJ90. For Trans States, which plans to take its first airplanes soon after the MRJ90 gains certification in 2017, a delivery delay would seem likely if no scope clause movement happens by then. “If they need MRJ70s because the scope clause is not relaxed, we will discuss with them [the possibility of] an adjustment,” he said.

Apart from SkyWest and Trans States, U.S. startup carrier Eastern Airways, Myanmar’s Air Mandalay, Japan’s All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines account for the rest of Mitsubishi’s MRJ firm order total of 223 airplanes. Launch customer ANA, which holds a firm order for 15 and options on another 10, now expects to launch service with single-class, 88-seat MRJ90s in mid-2017. The airline plans to use the MRJs to replace at least some of the Bombardier Q400s and Boeing 737-500s now flown by subsidiary ANA Wings.

JAL, meanwhile, has decided to wait until 2021 to concentrate its resources on first introducing Airbus A350s into its network, said Fukuhara. JAL’s plans call for replacing all the Bombardier CRJ200s flown by regional subsidiary J-Air first with Embraer E-Jets, then replacing the E-Jets with MRJs starting in 2021. The regional network will likely center on a hub at Osaka Itami Airport, from where the airline plans to connect various secondary Japanese destinations.