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Mitsubishi to exhibit new jet in Paris

This computer rendering released by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries shows the planned Mitsubishi Regional Jet. PHOTO: AP

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd, Asia's biggest aerospace company, will exhibit a model of its new passenger jet at the Paris Air Show next week, using the event to woo global airlines seeking fuel-efficient planes.

The Tokyo-based company will show off a full-sized mock-up of the aircraft's cabin, it said yesterday at a press conference.

About 30 percent of the 70 to 90-seat plane, known as the "Mitsubishi Regional Jet," (MRJ) will be made of lightweight carbon-fiber composites, making it 20 percent more fuel efficient than planes of similar size.

"We'd like to promote the program as a milestone for the development of Japan's aviation industry," MRJ project manager Junichi Miyakawa said.

The company will decide by the end of next March whether to put the aircraft into commercial production, making it Japan's first domestically built passenger jet. The MRJ would compete with planes built by Bombardier Inc of Canada and Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautica SA, or Embraer, of Brazil, which make commercial planes that seat fewer than 100 passengers.

Mitsubishi Heavy was the first outside supplier for Boeing Co's commercial jet-wing assemblies, and it will use similar carbon-fiber composites in building the MRJ.

General Electric Co, Rolls-Royce Group PLC and United Technologies Corp's Pratt and Whitney unit, have all bid to make the plane's engines, Mitsubishi Heavy said. The company plans to choose an engine supplier by the fall, when it starts soliciting orders from airlines, said Masakazu Niwa, general manager of Mitsubishi Heavy's aerospace division.

Mitsubishi Heavy has promoted the plane to as many as 30 airlines and received "attractive" feedback, Niwa said.

Development of the aircraft is backed by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. Niwa wouldn't elaborate on the development costs, the degree of government support or the orders necessary to justify building the planes.

Global demand for planes seating fewer than 100 passengers will probably reach 5,000 through 2026, as airlines replace older aircraft with more efficient models, Niwa said, citing company estimates.

Mitsubishi Heavy and two other Japanese manufacturers, Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd and Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd, supply wings and fuselage parts for Boeing's 787 long-range widebody aircraft, scheduled to enter commercial service in the middle of next year. The three companies build 35 percent of the parts for 787s under the biggest subcontracting project in Boeing's history.

Japanese manufacturers are signing more contracts with planemakers, including Chicago-based Boeing, benefiting from rising demand for air transportation. The nation hasn't built its own commercial plane since the YS11, a propeller-powered plane that first flew in 1962.

Mitsubishi Heavy's stock has gained 62 percent in the past 12 months. The shares fell ?4, or 0.5 percent, to ?755 yesterday.
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