The first passenger aircraft to be made in Japan in nearly four decades was unveiled on Saturday as its manufacturer pushed into the booming regional jet sector with an eye to taking on industry giants Embraer SA and Bombardier Inc.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd, a military contractor best known for its “Zero” World War II fighter, pulled back the curtain on its new Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ), a fuel-efficient, next-generation aircraft which claims to offer more passenger comfort with lower operating costs.
The jet, which is scheduled to be delivered to customers from 2017 and was built with assistance from aviation giant Boeing Co, was unveiled at a ceremony in Komaki, near the central city of Nagoya, on Saturday.
“The dream of a Japanese-made product that can be proudly presented to the world for top-notch efficiency and top-notch passenger comfort is finally coming true,” Mitsubishi Heavy Industries chairman Hideaki Omiya said.
“This wonderful aircraft that Japan has created after [a wait of] half a century carries with it many people’s hopes and dreams,” he said.
The plane marks a new chapter for Japan’s aviation sector, which last built a commercial airliner in 1962 — the YS-11 turboprop.
It was discontinued about a decade later.
Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp president and chief operating officer Teruaki Kawai recently said that the plane boasted “state-of-the-art aerodynamic design, and a game-changing engine [which] will significantly cut fuel consumption, noise and emissions, helping airlines enhance competitiveness and profitability in the future.”
Japanese firms were banned from developing aircraft by US occupiers following its defeat in World War II.
The nation slowly started rebuilding its aviation industry in the 1950s, starting with carrying out repair work for the US military, before expanding its scope to start licensed production of US-developed aircraft for Japan’s military.
Japanese firms have also long supplied parts to Boeing.
Mitsubishi’s short-to-medium-haul regional jet, which comes in a 70 and 90-seat version, was backed by the Japanese government and a consortium of major firms including Toyota Motor Corp, with research and development costs of about ¥180 billion (US$1.7 billion).
The company has secured 375 orders and options from carriers including All Nippon Airways Co Ltd (ANA), US-based Trans States Holdings Inc and SkyWest Inc.
Japan Airlines Co Ltd has also signed a letter of intent for 32 MRJs, which have a list price of US$40 million, to be used on domestic flights.
The MRJ project got off the ground in 2008 after ANA agreed to buy two dozen of the planes.
However, it quickly hit trouble as the global economic downturn battered the aviation industry, forcing many carriers to slash jobs and routes.
The project took off again as Tokyo tried to lure more overseas visitors ahead of the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
The Japanese government is also aiming to expand firms’ foothold in the global aviation and military sectors as the domestic market shrinks due to a rapidly aging population.
The jet is set to compete with small aircraft produced by Brazil’s Embraer and Canada’s Bombardier, as well as jets designed by Russian and Chinese firms.
Mitsubishi pointed to expected global demand of 5,000 regional jets over the next two decades.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)