Mitsubishi SpaceJet

Mitsubishi SpaceJet
Type:	Twin-engine regional airliner
Design country:	Japan
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation
First flight:	November 11, 2015
Commissioning:	planned for 2021 at the earliest
Number of pieces:	6th

The Mitsubishi Spacejet ( Japanese 三菱スペースジェット Mitsubishi Supēsu Jetto ; until June 2019 Mitsubishi Regional Jet (short MRJ ; Jap. 国産初ジェット旅客機三菱リージョナルジェット Kokusan hatsu jettoryokakuki Mitsubishi rījonarujetto "First domestic jet airliner Mitsubishi Regional Jet")) is a twin-engine regional airliner for 76 to 92 passengers of the Japanese aircraft manufacturer Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation , a joint venture of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries , Toyota , Sumitomo and Mitsui . The Mitsubishi SpaceJet competes with the Embraer E-Jets , the Comac ARJ21 , the Suchoi Superjet 100 and the Airbus A220 .

history

The first prototype on its first flight on November 11, 2015, accompanied by a Kawasaki T-4

The on-board crew after the first flight

The Mitsubishi SpaceJet is the first passenger aircraft developed in Japan since the NAMC YS-11 turboprop aircraft, which was manufactured from 1962 to 1974 . The development of the SpaceJet began in 2003 with a study on behalf of the Japanese Ministry of Economics and Industry METI for a 30- to 50-seat regional jet. The official start of the program for the "Mitsubishi Regional Jets", which has meanwhile increased to 70 to 90 seats, took place on March 28, 2008 following an order from All Nippon Airways from Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp., which was founded in the same year . ( Mitac ). Construction of the first machine began on September 30, 2010 with the production of the horizontal stabilizer. However, the first flight was postponed to the second half of 2015, the first delivery to the first quarter of 2018. The rollout took place on October 18, 2014.

The first flight of the first prototype with the registration number JA21MJ took place on November 11, 2015 from 9:35 a.m. to 11:02 a.m. (local time) and led from Nagoya Airport over the east coast of Japan a little across the Pacific and then back to the departure airport. The two pilots Yoshiyuki Yasumura and Kazuo Toda and three test engineers were on board during the flight. Over 3.2 million viewers followed the take-off and landing live on the Internet.

On October 15, 2015, construction began on the first series aircraft, which was to be delivered to All Nippon Airways in 2018. Due to the program delay that occurred later, however, this copy was used as a test aircraft.

On January 23, 2017, Mitac announced that the commissioning would be delayed by two years from 2018 to 2020 due to necessary changes to the electrical system. According to the company, the regulations for the location of the cables of the fly-by-wire system in the aircraft have been changed, which would have prevented approval by the authorities. The new regulation is the result of a crash of a Boeing 747 in 1996 , in which an exposed cable shorted to another metallic component. Mitac said that when planning the cable system, it was not sufficiently aware of the destination. In January 2018, the necessary adjustments listed were almost complete.

On June 13, 2019, Mitac announced that the project would be renamed from “Mitsubishi Regional Jet” to “Mitsubishi SpaceJet”. The previous version MRJ90 will henceforth be referred to as M90 and will later be further developed into a larger M200 for about 100 passengers. The smaller MRJ70 is being extensively revised and marketed as the M100 .

On June 24, 2019, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) and Bombardier announced that MHI will take over the entire program of the Bombardier Canadair Regional Jet including approvals, sales and service organization for a better infrastructure for the distribution of the SpaceJet in North America.

List of program delays

Announcement of the delay	old date of commissioning	new date of commissioning	Reason for the delay
September 9, 2009	2013	first quarter of 2014	Design changes
April 25, 2012	first quarter of 2014	second half of 2015	Delays in development and production
22nd August 2013	second half of 2015	second quarter of 2017	Problems working with suppliers
December 24, 2015	second quarter of 2017	second quarter of 2018	Rescheduling the approval process
20th January 2017	second quarter of 2018	second quarter of 2020	Rearrangement of the cable system
February 6, 2020	second quarter of 2020	no earlier than 2021	Delays in rearranging the cable system

Flight testing

The test program is expected to include around 3,000 flight hours, of which 1,500 hours were completed by the end of 2017. Much of the flight testing takes place at Grant County International Airport in Moses Lake , where Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation has built a hangar and an engineering center with 150 employees. Four test aircraft were flown to Moses Lake between September 2016 and April 2017.

Test aircraft

M90

Reg	First flight	Area of ​​responsibility	Remarks	image
N / A	N / A	Break cell for dynamic loads	"Fatigue Test Aircraft"
N / A	N / A	Break cell for static loads	"Static Test Aircraft"
JA21MJ	November 11, 2015	First flight, expansion of the flight area	first test aircraft
JA22MJ	May 31, 2016	Function tests	red ribbon
JA23MJ	22nd November 2016	Flight characteristics, avionics
			black ribbon window (until June 2017)
			All Nippon Airways livery (June 2017 to June 2019)
			SpaceJet livery (since June 2019)
JA24MJ	September 25, 2016	Cabin, noise, icing	Original painting
JA25MJ	N / A	Soil tests	All Nippon Airways livery
JA26MJ	March 18, 2020	Testing the new fly-by-wire system, series production	SpaceJet livery
JA27MJ	N / A	Testing the new fly-by-wire system	is in the final assembly

M100

Reg	First flight	Area of ​​responsibility	Remarks
JA28MJ		Approval of the M100	is in the final assembly

construction

The Mitsubishi SpaceJet is the first aircraft for which the Pratt & Whitney PW1000G geared turbofan has been selected. In contrast to the original plan, the box spars of the wings are not made of composite materials, but of aluminum alloys. The cockpit is equipped with the Pro-Line-Fusion system from Rockwell Collins with four 36 × 28 cm screens. The aircraft is controlled by a fly-by-wire system.

variants

Model of the M90 variant (then MRJ90 ) at the ILA 2010

After almost 2 decades of development and several years of delay in the market launch, the previous Mitsubishi Regional Jet project was renamed Mitsubishi SpaceJet in June 2019 . Mitac, like Embraer with the E175-E2, had wrongly expected that the Scope Clauses would be relaxed in the USA . The most common restrictions (takeoff weight max. 39 t, max. 76 passengers) could not have complied with the MRJ90 or the MRJ70 would only have been able to use the MRJ70 in narrow 1-class seating . However, more than 70% of the firm orders and 85% of the options came from the USA and are subject to these provisions. Mitac then revised the designs and presented them as SpaceJet M90 , M100 and M200 .

The planned MRJ70 should come on the market in 2022 and should be replaced by the M100 . The MRJ70 was planned for 76 passengers.

The M90 (formerly MRJ90 ) is the furthest advanced in the approval process and can be used well outside the USA; it should be approved and then delivered at the earliest in 2021. The M200 variant (formerly MRJ100X ) for approx. 100 passengers will later be developed from it.

The M100 is an M70 that has been lengthened by 1.1 m ; the cabin is also being lengthened by another 0.5 m at the expense of the cargo hold, in order to create space for two additional rows of seats. Under the restrictions of the Scope Clauses, the maximum number of seats allowed can also be offered in 3-class seating. The exits at the front and back of the passenger compartment are connected to the front and rear, followed by the galley and toilets, which enables a space-saving and more flexible design of the cabin. The toilets are sufficiently spacious to allow easy access for wheelchair users. The overhead bins above the seats have been enlarged to accommodate a 58 × 37 × 25 cm wheeled suitcase for each passenger. The passenger saves having to check in the luggage, the airline has to handle the luggage and the cargo space can largely be used for freight. The wings are shorter and, thanks to smaller winglets, also lighter. The reduced wingspan allows for flights to Aspen Airport. More lightweight construction material (CFRP and lithium-aluminum alloys) is used than on the M90 and in the further development process up to 15% weight is to be saved on some structural parts (e.g. wing boxes ). This means that an M100 fully occupied with 76 passengers will still have a range of 2800 kilometers if the scope restrictions are observed.

In May 2020, MHI announced that development of the M100 would be stopped for the time being due to the COVID-19 pandemic and that the focus would be on the approval of the M90 .

Orders

date	airline	Orders	Options	Remarks
March 27, 2008	All Nippon Airways	015th	010	Delivery from 2021 at the earliest
17th July 2012	SkyWest Airlines	100	100	Delivery from 2022 at the earliest
July 14, 2014	Air Mandalay	006th	004th
August 28, 2014	J-Air	032	0-	Delivery planned from 2024
February 16, 2016	Aerolease Aviation	010	010	Delivery from 2021 at the earliest
July 12, 2016	Rockton	010	010	Delivery planned from 2023
total		173	134

Cancellations

Order date	airline	Orders	Options	Remarks
June 16, 2011	ANI Group Holdings	05	-	only letter of intent , canceled in May 2013
July 14, 2014	Eastern Air Lines	20th	20th	canceled by successor Swift Air in January 2018
December 27, 2010	Trans States Airlines	50	50	canceled in October 2019 due to program delays
total		75	40

Technical specifications

Parameter	M90 (MRJ 90)	M100
First flight	November 11, 2015	?
Commissioning	around 2020	approx. 2024
length	35.8 m	34.5 m
Wingspan	29.2 m	27.8 m
height	10.3 m
Trunk width	2.96 m
Cabin width	2.76 m
Cabin height	2.02 m
Passenger capacity	76-92	Max. 88 84 @ 79 cm USA: 76 (12 @ 91 cm, 12 @ 84 cm, 52 @ 76 cm)
Freight volume	18.2 m³	13.6 m³
Empty mass	21,700 kg	N / A
Fuel capacity	12,100 l
Max. Takeoff mass ( MTOM )	42,800 kg	42,000 kg USA: 39,008 kg
Max. Landing mass	38,000 kg	36,200 kg
Engine types	2 × Pratt & Whitney PW1217G
Thrust	2 × 78.2 kN / 17,600 lb f
Maximum speed	Mach 0.82
Cruising speed	Mach 0.78
Service ceiling	11,900 m
Max. Range	3,770 km	3,540 km USA: 2,800 km
Takeoff route	1,740 m	1,760 m USA: 1,550 m
Landing route	1,480 m	1,550 m

See also

• List of aircraft types

Web links

Commons : Mitsubishi SpaceJet  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website for the Mitsubishi SpaceJet (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} aero.de - Mitsubishi postpones SpaceJet until 2021 , accessed on February 8, 2020
2. ↑ China Economic Net "Toyota to sink $ 67.2 mln in Mitsubishi passenger jet" (May 23, 2008)
3. ↑ Flight International October 28, 2014, p. 39, accessed June 2, 2015
4. ↑ spiegel.de: New passenger jet “Made in Japan”: Successful maiden flight. Retrieved November 11, 2015 . 
5. ↑ aero.de: Mitsubishi postpones MRJ first flight. Retrieved October 21, 2019 . 
6. ↑ Flight International October 28, 2014, p. 38, accessed June 2, 2015
7. ↑ FAZ.net: Aviation Industry: Japan's new passenger plane takes off on its maiden flight. November 11, 2015, accessed November 11, 2015 . 
8. ↑ MRJ, 初 飛行 成功 離 陸 の 瞬間 「飛 び た い と 言 っ て い る よ う だ っ た」 at aviationwire.jp (Japanese), accessed November 11, 2015
9. ↑ MRJ Newsletter Vol. 6 , accessed on November 11, 2015
10. ↑ ^{a b} Mitsubishi Aircraft postpones start again , NZZ , January 24, 2017 and http://www.flythemrj.com/news/date/news_170123.html accessed on January 23, 2017
11. ↑ Mitsubishi Heavy Industries press conference on January 23, 2017 (Japanese), accessed January 30, 2017
12. ↑ Japan jet may not make money, but aims to revive dormant industry , accessed April 28, 2017
13. ↑ MRJ Program Nears Completion Of Redesign , accessed January 27, 2018
14. ↑ ^{a b} cdn.hubspot.net - Introducing Mitsubishi SpaceJet , accessed June 15, 2019
15. ↑ Mitsubishi to acquire regional jet business from Bombardier on June 26, 2019 (accessed September 17, 2019)
16. ↑ flythemrj.com - MRJ 最新 状況 説明 会 ( Memento from June 18, 2018 in the Internet Archive )
17. ↑ flythemrj.com - MRJ ス ケ ジ ュ ー ル の 見 直 し に つ い て ( Memento from June 18, 2018 in the Internet Archive )
18. ↑ flythemrj.com - MRJ の 開 発 ス ケ ジ ュ ー ル に つ い て ( Memento from February 26, 2017 in the Internet Archive )
19. ↑ flythemrj.com - MRJ 開 発 状況 に つ い て ( Memento from February 26, 2017 in the Internet Archive )
20. ↑ 2017: A Year of Progress for the MRJ , accessed on January 27, 2018
21. ↑ MRJ, 3 号 機 が 米 国 到 着 4 機 で 飛行 試 験, 5 号 機 は 設計 変 更 用 に (Japanese), accessed April 28, 2017
22. ↑ Sebastian Steinke: SpaceJet FTV10 completes first flight. In: Flugrevue.de. March 18, 2020, accessed March 18, 2020 . 
23. ↑ sky-budget.com - 三菱 航空 機 、 飛行 試 験 機 SpaceJet M90 (JA26MJ) の 完成 を 発 表 (Japanese), accessed February 8, 2020
24. ↑ MRJ, パ リ 航空 シ ョ ー で 地上 展示 へ (Japanese), accessed April 28, 2017
25. ↑ Flight International : "Pratt & Whitney Geared Turbofan engine selected to power Mitsubishi Regional Jet" (September 10, 2007)
26. ↑ Mitac: The Mitsubishi Spacejet Family. Retrieved October 21, 2019 . 
27. ↑ Leehamnews.com: How Mitsubishi Aircraft morphed the MRJ70 into the M100 SpaceJet. June 13, 2019, accessed October 21, 2019 . 
28. ↑ flightglobal.com - Mitsubishi to halve SpaceJet budget, review M100 development , accessed on May 13, 2020
29. ↑ All Nippon Airways: "ANA Selects Mitsubishi Regional Jet" (March 27, 2008)
30. ↑ SkyWest Firms Order For 100 Mitsubishi Regional Jets
31. ↑ Air Mandalay Signs Definitive Agreement for Purchase of up to Ten MRJ Aircraft , accessed on July 13, 2016
32. ↑ E190 and MRJ to form J-Air's core fleet , accessed June 8, 2016
33. ^ Aerolease Aviation signs LOI with Mitsubishi Aircraft for purchase of up to 20 MRJ , accessed on July 13, 2016
34. ↑ Order of 10 MRJ90s - First success for Mitsubishi in Europe , on aerotelegraph.com, accessed on July 12, 2016
35. ^ Paris 2011: Mitsubishi Lands Third Customer for MRJ , accessed January 27, 2018
36. ↑ Mitsubishi and ANI cancel MOU for MRJs , accessed January 27, 2018
37. ^ Eastern Air Lines confirms MRJ purchase , accessed January 27, 2018
38. ↑ Eastern Air Lines cancels order for 20 MRJs , accessed on January 27, 2018
39. ↑ SkyWest, Trans States continue waiting out MRJ delays , accessed June 8, 2016
40. ↑ mitsubishiaircraft.com - Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation Statement: Cancellation of Trans States Holdings Contract , accessed October 31, 2019