More problems for Mitsubishi and its MRJ program

The manufacturer of the Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ) faces a dilemma over how to send prototypes to the United States for planned test flights, thanks to Japan’s shaky diplomatic relations with Russia.
Japan’s first domestically produced passenger jet needs to get to an airport near the northwestern U.S. city of Seattle, located 8,000 km from Aichi Prefecture as the crow flies, but the maximum flight range of its standard model is 2,100 kilometers.
The aircraft, designed for short-haul flights, will need to stop at several airports to refuel en route to the U.S. West Coast.
Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp. is now studying three possible routes for the plane. Politically, the trans-Pacific route, spanning more than 10,000 km, is the most viable option but it requires the maximum non-stop flight range of 4,000 km between Hawaii and the U.S. West Coast.
“The aircraft can technically achieve such a long-distance flight if we refurbish the fuel tank to accommodate more jet fuel, but we are still discussing if it is worth to do that just for one trip,” a Mitsubishi Aircraft official said.
Distance-wise, the northbound route, flying above the Kamchatka Peninsula, Bering Strait and Alaska and spanning just 8,000 km, makes the most sense.
But it is unclear whether Moscow would give permission for flights by a Japanese prototype aircraft over its territory. It also remains to be seen if the two countries could negotiate on accident response measures and other arrangements regarding the flights.
A westbound route through Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the Atlantic Ocean, which has been used for delivering Brazilian-made short-distance aircraft to Japanese airliners, is the last option.
But the route spans more than 20,000 km–or half the distance around the globe–and taking it would increase the risk of accidents and other unexpected problems, Mitsubishi Aircraft officials said.
After a successful maiden flight in November last year, the company has flight-tested prototypes at Nagoya Airport in Aichi Prefecture and Noto Airport in Ishikawa Prefecture, both in central Japan.
The company now plans to start moving four of the five prototypes to the U.S. airport, which is widely used for test flights by aircraft manufacturers from around the world, before the end of this year.
The airport has many runways, and clear weather in the region makes it an ideal venue for flight tests, Mitsubishi Aircraft officials said.
The Asahi Shimbum