Mitsubishi SpaceJet faces development freeze

Developer Mitsubishi Heavy says it will ‘closely review the development timeline’

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Mitsubishi SpaceJet
(IMAGE: Mitsubishi Aircraft)

Use this oneMedia reports out of Japan say that Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which has spent more than a decade trying to develop a homegrown regional jet now called the SpaceJet, is said to be putting the programme on hold after sinking almost US$10 billion into the plane.

The company launched the programme back in 2008 as part of Japan’s efforts to develop its aerospace sector on an international scale but has suffered years of delays and setbacks. “It is true that we are considering many possibilities,” Mitsubishi Heavy said on 23 October to Japanese media. The company added that it will “continue to closely review the development timeline, taking into account the impact of the coronavirus.” The company plans to keep trying for a type certification but is said to be cutting the programme’s and team by half to about 500 after earlier downsizing the development team and operations.

Seven years after the original planned delivery date, the SpaceJet still has yet to receive type certification, shipments have been postponed for at least six times and development costs have ballooned over their original estimates.

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Matt Driskill is the Editor of Asian Aviation and is based in Cambodia. He has been an Asia-based journalist and content producer since 1990 for outlets including Reuters and the International Herald Tribune/New York Times and is a former president of the Foreign Correspondents Club of Hong Kong. He appears on international broadcast outlets like Al Jazeera, CNA and the BBC and has taught journalism at Hong Kong University and American University of Paris. In 2022 Driskill received the "Outstanding Achievement Award" from the Aerospace Media Awards Asia organisation for his editorials and in 2024 received a "Special Recognition for Editorial Perspectives" award from the same organisation. Driskill has received awards from the Associated Press for Investigative Reporting and Business Writing and in 1989 was named the John J. McCloy Fellow by the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University in New York where he earned his Master's Degree.

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