Mitsubishi Aircraft (Stand U01) plans to introduce a second new aircraft to its MRJ flight test program, bringing the total number of flight test articles to seven. The decision comes following a review of the program’s requirements for additional capacity to address design changes to the MRJ90’s avionics bay.
Speaking here Tuesday afternoon, Mitsubishi Aircraft vice president of marketing and sales Yugo Fukuhara issued an update on the flight test schedule, expected to culminate in time for a mid-2020 first delivery to launch customer All Nippon Airways.
Recent flight test accomplishments include completion of first and second avionics load testing, initial autopilot and FMS, hot and cold climatic chamber, initial natural icing, smoke penetration and detection, initial anti-skid testing, and contaminated runway testing.
Fukuhara reported “no show stoppers” in major areas such as insulation requirements and confirmation of compliance for natural stalls. Tests have also shown that performance stalls have exceeded expectations, and no flutter up to design speeds. The program has also confirmed all corners of the weight/CG envelope, handling qualities, buffet boundaries and takoffs and landing performance.
Fukuhara also noted that the program has passed the midpoint of flight testing, accumulating more than 1,700 flight hours.
Following no fewer than five major program delays, the MRJ has reached a point where the company can integrate several design upgrades through the course of next year and test the effects of temperature extremes on the reconfigured avionics bay. Meanwhile, another six airplanes have entered various stages of assembly, laying the foundation for a plan to first build a single airplane per month and accelerate production “in a phased manner” until eventually reaching a rate of 10 per month.
First, however, engineers must endure what the head of the MRJ’s product management office in Nagoya, Alex Bellamy, described as an extremely busy year of test flying in 2018, culminating in installation of the final avionics bay configuration in the fourth flight test example. Targeting certification by the end of 2019, program leadership now expects the MRJ flight test airplanes to clock as much as 3,000 hours, some 500 more than originally allocated.
