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.

FMI: www.mhi.co.jp/indexe.html, www.mrj-japan.com/