Maiden Flight of MRJ Delayed till November

It's not because anything is wrong with the aircraft but because the cockpits need readjustment that the scheduled maiden flight of MRJ is delayed a month ahead. Deliveries in Aprill-June next year to ANA Holdings remain unchanged.

The first flight was originally scheduled for any one day between 26-30 this month.

Following the low speed running test earlier in June this year, Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation put MRJ to a medium speed test run on the ground at the prefectural Nagoya Airport, on October 7.

The maiden flight next month is scheduled to take place either offshore Hokuriku over the Japan Sea or the Sea of Enshu off Shizuoka. The exact date of flight is subject to weather conditions.

President Hiromichi Morimoto said the maiden flight would be an all-important milestone of the entire project and virtually a fresh start.

The test aircraft will take off somewhere in Aichi and effect a series of tests in an hour's time. After the maiden flight, the test aircraft will fly for 2,500 hours. Starting this summer test flights are scheduled also in the United States.

The first-made aircraft will be delivered in April-June in 2017.

The Mitsubishi Regional Jet or MRJ is a twin-engine jet manufactured by Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation in partnership with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Toyota Motor.

MRJ is the first airliner built by and in Japan since the legendary YS-11 in the 1960s.

It seats 70 (MRJ-70) to 90 (MRJ-90) and has a cruising range of 1,500-3,300km covering Hon Kong (2,920) and Manila (3,008). Part of the body is built from carbon fibre-containing composite fiber to reduce the total weight, improving fuel efficiency by 20% (MRJ-70).

MRJ is a next-generation regional jet of a class of its own in the economy, comfort and ecology.