Considering how involved Japan is when it comes to electronics and automobiles, I found it hard to believe that the country hasn’t made a passenger plane in 50 years.
On Wednesday, November 11 that changed when Mitsubishi launched the first Japanese-made passenger jet, according to CNN.
Yesterday the plane took a 90 minute flight, taking off from Nagoya Airport.
The plane, the Mitsubishi Regional Jet or MRJ should come in two configurations- 78 or 92 seats and supposedly uses 20% less fuel in its class due to the aerodynamic design. Mitsubish needs to do more test flights before the MRJs are delivered in the middle of 2017.
While I’m no expert when it comes to different kinds of planes, I do have to say that the MRJ does look pretty impressive.
CNN mentions that the Mitsubishi MRJ will be competition with Brazil’s Embraer and Canada’s Bombardier.
With a Japanese company getting into the commercial airplane business I wonder if Sony or Toyota could be next! 🙂
Find out more from CNN here.
Doug- Thanks for the info. Plane would’ve been a better word to use…
It’s not the first passenger get in 50 years, it’s the first passenger jet ever made in Japan (they did produce a turboprop).