Mitsubishi Heavy Industries abandons the SpaceJet Japanese civil aircraft project

The Japanese group Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) announced on Tuesday that it had abandoned its SpaceJet regional aircraft project, plagued for years by delays and which had been frozen in 2020 because of the pandemic.

MHI explained in an online presentation on Tuesday that it did not have enough resources to continue the development of the project; for which it spent no less than 8 billion euros.

The SpaceJet programme, initially called Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ), was launched in 2008 by MHI with the support of the Japanese government. But the project has encountered many technical difficulties and the date of the first delivery of the aircraft, initially set for 2013, had to be postponed several times.

In the meantime, the aircraft’s capacity had been reduced from 90 to 76 passengers, a condition for accessing the crucial North American market, where the prototypes have been tested.

The Covid-19 pandemic had given the final blow to the SpaceJet project, which had already been frozen in 2020.

However, MHI bought Bombardier’s CRJ regional aviation programme in 2020 and thus remains an important player in the aeronautical industry. The group is also present in the military field with the GCAP project for the development by 2035 of a new generation fighter aircraft bringing together Japan, the United Kingdom and Italy.