Plane Will Compete Against Russian, Chinese Offerings
With Russia and even China preparing
to start production of single-aisle jets -- a market now dominated
by Brazil's Embraer and Canada's Bombardier on the regional side,
with Boeing and Airbus taking care of the 150-200 seat segment --
one country has been conspicuously absent from the aviation scene
-- Japan. But that may be about to change.
BusinessWeek reports Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is getting
serious with plans to bring a regional jet of its own to market...
following in the steps of China, whose aviation ambitions
reportedly gave the Japanese government added impetus to push the
project through, after years of sitting on the fence.
In fact, the Japanese government has offered to pay for up to
one-third of the estimated $1 billion development cost for the jet
-- called the Mitsubishi Regional Jet, or MRJ -- through 2013.
The recent ramp-up leaves some wondering why Mitsubishi hadn't
gone forward with such plans before now. The company already
produces large parts for several aircraft companies, including the
carbon-fiber wings and other components of Boeing's upcoming 787
Dreamliner. These components are manufactured in a
thoroughly-modern factory near Nagoya City... on the same site
where workers built Zero fighters during World War II.
One major sticking point was funding. Mitsubishi struggled for
years to win political backing for the project, and without Tokyo's
support the company wasn't able to secure additional financing.
As ANN reported in 2002,
Boeing was rumored to be interested in backing the project. There
remains a strong chance the American planemaker would assist
Mitsubishi in developing a sales and service network alongside its
own -- to cater to a market Boeing has shown little interest in
expanding (or downsizing, if you will) into.
Mitsubishi displayed a full-sized mockup of the plane at Paris
this year to roughly 30 customers, BusinessWeek adds, and says
reaction was positive.
There remains the question, though, of whether the regional
market is healthy enough to support another entry, on top of
China's ARJ-21 and Russia's Sukhoi Superjet 100 -- which Boeing has
also offered to help develop, as part of its 787 deal with
Aeroflot.
Industry expert Kazuki Suguira says Mitsubishi would have to
play to win; being fourth or fifth "may not be worth it," he said.
Others question whether even one billion dollars will be enough to
develop a competitive product.
On the plus side, Japanese carriers have shown considerable
interest in a homegrown regional jet... and sales to JAL and All
Nippon Airways could go a long way towards giving Mitsubishi the
400 orders it says it needs to operate the MRJ project in the
black. Stay tuned.